The company has begun preparing for the contract and should be printing by mid 2017. HMRC currently issues in the region of 185 million letters a year.

The company declined to reveal the value of the contract, which chief executive Andy Blundell said would be carried out entirely in-house.

“We’re delighted with the contract, it’s a big deal,” he said.

“It takes us back into the public sector and there is a strong digital technology agenda, which is the absolute direction Communisis is heading in.”

The documents will be printed at Communisis’ Halifax and Liverpool sites, using a number of its high-speed colour inkjet HP T-series machines.

The contract also includes the deployment of 'document composition technology', which will use GMC software to signal if a person is in receipt of a tax message and then fast-track the associated letter onto Communisis’ digital presses before being issued for delivery.

Blundell said the £350m-turnover group started the process of application for the contract in Q1 of this year.

After the announcement, the group’s share price jumped by 5.3%, or 2.25p, to 41.5p.

The contract is for three years, with an optional two-year extension, subject to both sides being happy with the services. Blundell said he was hopeful the relationship would be five years but the focus would be on securing the three-year renewal.

Communisis has delivered a number of similar contracts in the past for major organisations, including a recent contract for outbound and inbound communications for Lloyds TSB. 

Since 2012, as part of a sub-contracting agreement with Capgemini, Fujitsu has been providing millions of printed pages a year to HMRC from its Birchwood, Warrington-based print services division.

HMRC's other current supplier is Williams Lea.