950 Islanders miss tax return deadline

Thursday 15 December 2016

Over £600,000 is owed by Islanders who failed to pay their outstanding taxes by the deadline.

Approximately 950 personal taxpayers - a 36% increase on last year - missed last Friday's deadline, after receiving notices of assessment as far back as October. They will now be faced with an additional 10% charge, with a notice due to the sent in the coming days.

The Taxes Office had initially issued nearly 12,000 notices, but on 5 December - just four days prior to the deadline - there were 3,000 people still with an outstanding balance.

"'It's in the post' is not an acceptable excuse," Assistant Comptroller of Taxes, Chris Le Breton had warned.

Commenting on the news yesterday, Mr Le Breton said: “Despite a recent media campaign to raise awareness it is inevitable that some people will still delay paying their taxes until it is too late.”

Last year, 700 people missed the deadline, and faced the 10% surcharge. This year, however, has seen this number increase by more than a third.

While the value of the notices currently stands a little over £600,000, this figure will vary as the Taxes Office receives further information from taxpayers to finalise their tax affairs.

Those with an outstanding balance can pay online here.