Shelving the Treasury’s plan to “make tax digital” will take more than £1 billion from the exchequer by 2022

Billions of pounds will be lost to the exchequer as a result of delays to key HM Revenue and Customs projects caused by Brexit, The Times can reveal.

HMRC has given MPs a list, due to be published within days, of 39 IT projects and changes that have had to be put on ice as the department focuses on how it will implement customs after Brexit.

The “HMRC transformation portfolio list of stopped or paused projects” passed to The Times lifts the lid on the extent to which Brexit is diverting attempts to modernise across Whitehall. It includes reforms designed to make it easier for the public to interact with the taxman, such as the “tax-free childcare new front end”, described as “creating