Taxes Office: Stop visiting us, calling is quicker!

Wednesday 21 March 2018

Islanders are wasting their time by queuing up at the Taxes Office because their queries could be resolved in just a few minutes over the phone, officials have said.

Figures released by the Taxes Office have shown that islanders are waiting around five times as long to have their questions answered in person, as they would do on the phone.

From January to March this year, islanders have spent around 20 minutes on average waiting at the Taxes Office, while callers had their enquiries answered in just over four minutes. 

Tax helpdesk visits and waiting times peaked in the first month of this year – 5,097 visited, and spent nearly 25 minutes before they were even able to talk to an official.

By comparison, 5,956 phone calls were received in the same month, but those took just four minutes not only to be answered, but resolved too.

Pictured: Many people ask for help filling out their forms, when guidance is already provided online.

Richard Summersgill, Comptroller of Taxes, said: “Our statistics show that callers wait, on average, just 67 seconds for their call to be answered, and calls last an average of six minutes. However, people who come to the office in person often wait a lot longer, and some are asking for help we cannot give. Our top helpdesk query is ‘please can you check / help me fill in my tax return’. But it is for taxpayers to fill in their own tax forms.

“Our officers want to help, but it is not possible to provide what is effectively a free tax-agent service at public cost, especially when that work increases queuing times for other people.”  

The Taxes Office say that their figures show that most people are visiting the office unnecessarily. Many simply want to discuss how to fill out their forms – and guidance for that is already provided on the gov.je site.

The Comptroller is now urging taxpayers to carefully read that information so that staff can prioritise putting transformation and tax assessment work for their 63,000-strong payer base first.

Those with more complicated issues are also advised that they can receive guidance from the Citizens Advice Bureau.

The Comptroller added his thanks to islanders for their “patience”, stating: “We have a long way to go in terms of customer service but we are preparing for the largest transformation for 30 years.  When it comes online the new software will remove the need for many of the enquiries our staff are currently dealing with, so it has to be their priority.”