£15million of tax outstanding – and just 24 hours left to collect it

Thursday 07 December 2017

Around £15million in taxes is still to be paid by around 2,000 islanders – with only one day left to go before the deadline hits tomorrow.

The Taxes Office sent out nearly 8,000 assessment notices this year about remaining balances to be paid in income tax and long-term care charges.

But now the collection deadline is little over 24 hours away – all need to be dealt with by 18:00 tomorrow. 

For those that don’t make it, they could be hit with a 10% fee.

Islanders paying most of their tax using ITIS won’t have received a notification, and will therefore avoid the surcharge.

Pictured: The Taxes Office are still waiting to hear back from around 2,000 islanders.

Assistant Comptroller of Taxes Chris Le Breton said: “The majority of Islanders pay their taxes and long term care contribution in good time. However, each year a number of people face paying a fine as we near the end of the year. People have a number of payment options open to them – the easiest being to pay online – which hopefully means very few will miss the deadline.”

The Taxes Office will accept payment either online using a debit card or via cheque, but the latter must be with the department by today.

In October, Express revealed that the Taxes Office were still to process 12,000 tax forms. They said that they were 14% behind where they would like to be.

It led to numerous complaints from islanders on social media who said that their forms were later than ever before, despite submitting them on time. While 60% of islanders put their forms in well before May, a quarter of all forms were received in the final week. 10% were overdue.

While the main deadline is tomorrow, islanders will have until 31 December to disclose any accidental or deliberate income omissions without being penalised for doing so. Since April, islanders have made around 50 disclosures.