Delays expected as 120,000 tax documents taxied across town

Thursday 29 November 2018

Islanders are being told to expect disruption and delay in January as the Tax Department taxies 120,000 documents from one town building to another alongside upgrades to its 35-year-old computer system.

In total, 2,000sqft worth of securely packed taxpayer's documents will be moved to the new Customer Services hub at La Motte Street from Cyril Le Marquand House during which time tax services will be "restricted."

Islanders and businesses are therefore being asked to update their details or make any queries in December to avoid being impacted by reduced services.

In January, tax officers will be preparing and migrating all taxpayers’ data from the current 35-year-old computer system to a new Revenue Management System (RMS). Work has already started to test the new system before migrating the taxpayer records. The move is part of the modernisation of the service, which will include a customer service website offering online personal tax filing from 2020.

Pictured: Tax teams have put together checklists to help islanders with their queries ahead of the move.

The tax teams, which amount to around 100 staff, will also move to La Motte Street in January. They will join Social Security teams as both services become part of 'Revenue Jersey' in the Treasury and Exchequer department under States Chief Charlie Parker's new 'One Gov' structure.

During the move, Revenue Jersey staff will have limited access to both computerised and paper-based taxpayer records. Richard Summersgill, the Comptroller of Taxes, is therefore asking taxpayers to update details or make any queries in December to avoid any difficulties. 

The tax teams have published a checklist to help individuals and individuals make their queries ahead of the move. More information about the potential impacts is available on the States website.

Pictured: In total, around 2,000sqft of securely packed documents will be moved from Cyril Le Marquand House.

Mr Summersgill said the move will bring to a close over two years’ "tireless effort" from the tax teams to prepare for new computer systems and new ways of working. He also thanked the public for their patience and assure them that all employees are working to make the transition as smooth as possible.

"Over the next eight weeks, we will make significant changes to our operations, moving onto a digital system that will allow us to design and deliver the 21^st century services our customers deserve," he explained. "By the end of January we will be working in our ‘back office’ on the new system, which is the first step towards enabling most islanders to access records and to file online in 2020."