In 2008, the NAO recommended that HMRC develop its IT systems to effectively provide it with a single customer record or view, either through one new system or by making progressive changes that allowed it to link debts from different taxes.28 In 2009, following this recommendation, HMRC told our predecessor committee that it could not afford the estimated £250 million to develop an IT system which automatically linked the different tax records of each taxpayer alongside its existing commitments. It was therefore planning to link VAT debts to its main debt management system, as the first step in an incremental approach.29 Thirteen years later, HMRC still records details for different taxes on different IT systems and has no straightforward way to combine or link them.30 It has identified some benefits it might realise if it could achieve a single customer view, such as ‘setting off’ credits against debts. HMRC also told us it had made advances towards a single customer record or account in recent years, citing the personal tax account and business tax account as examples of progress. HMRC has been awarded funding to make further progress over the next three years. It believed it would be able to link data for the major tax streams within three years but it would still not be able to link or view data across all types of tax at the end of this three-year period.31