Service difficulties leave 1,500 Islanders without 2016 tax assessment

Thursday 28 December 2017

The Taxes Office has apologised for the delay in tax returns and error messages asking for a payable sum.

1,500 Islanders will be ending 2017 without a tax assessment for 2016, as the Taxes Office is still clearing a backlog of assessments.

In October, Express reported that 79% of assessments had been completed - 14% behind where the Taxes Office should have been - due to “redeployment of key staff and training new staff.” This backlog has now been reduced to 6%.

The Taxes Office has said the 1,500 islanders affected will receive a temporary 2018 ITIS effective rate based on their last assessed tax bill.

In a statement, the office added: “A further small number of taxpayers who have received their assessment have yet to receive a 2018 ITIS effective rate to give to their employer: this is because they need their rate calculated manually. These are commonly cases with a significant change in financial circumstances during 2017, and have occurred as an unexpected consequence of prioritising 2016 assessments over other tasks. For these cases, to avoid any employee’s rate defaulting to 21%, employers will receive correspondence from the Comptroller of Taxes. The letter instructs employers to apply employees’ December 2017 rate to the January deduction in cases where a new effective rate has not yet been issued by the Taxes Office. All new effective rates will be issued by the end of January, in time for February payroll processing, so this will only apply to January 2018 salary payments. Employees are therefore urged to give their 2018 effective rates into their employers promptly upon receipt.”

Pictured: Service issues at the Taxes Office led to delays in giving islanders their tax assessment. They'll receive a temporary ITIS affective rate based on their last tax bill.

Some ‘current year’ tax payers have been alarmed to see an outstanding balance to be paid on the bottom of their assessments. The office has said this is a default message that cannot be adjusted due to the limitations of the current computer software. There should be a note at the top of the assessment if this message should be ignored.

Commenting on the current service difficulties, the Comptroller of Taxes, Richard Summersgill, said: “I apologise for the shortfall in our services. All our tax officers are acutely aware that the service we can currently offer is way below the digitally enabled standards that people encounter in other spheres of life. We are making plans to transform their experience of the Taxes Office, ultimately meaning that, from 2020, taxpayers will be able to submit their returns and receive their tax assessments and ITIS rates online, within minutes rather than months. We will begin communicating with the public about this from spring 2018, once we are fully underway with the change programme.

“In the meantime, we are also making changes to some current processes. For instance, we installed a new Mitel telephone call management system last month, and are very pleased to report that an average of 250 calls are answered per day, with the average wait time now one minute and four seconds. There are, without question, a couple of tough years ahead for all our staff, but we look forward to the positive impact our transformation programme will have on our efficiency, our professional standards and our customers’ experience in the months and years ahead.”