The Revenue Service has failed to update its ‘tax backlog’ statistics since November suggesting that a new backlog has developed in monitoring the backlog.

The data is published at gov.gg to show members of the public how work to progress Income Tax returns is going.

It is usually updated in March, but no figures have been published since November 2024.

Express asked why this is last week and has not yet had a response from the Revenue Service.

Pictured: The tax backlog data available at gov.gg this morning.

There has been a ‘backlog’ at Guernsey’s Revenue Service since 2010 at least.

Extra staff have been recruited and working hours were changed to try and tackle the backlog in assessing income tax returns during the 2010s but these methods failed to solve the problem.

It’s stated on gov.gg that the “backlog has been around for many years and was exacerbated by the changes to normal working life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Despite that now being five years ago, it’s believed that some people are still waiting for their tax returns from 2020 to be assessed.

Meanwhile, it’s been confirmed that more than £6,000,000 was imposed in penalties against people who were late filing their income tax returns in both 2021 and 2022.

A Freedom of Information request earlier this year revealed that thousands of individuals and businesses were fined for returning their forms late.

Pictured: A Freedom of Information request has confirmed how many penalties were issued in 2021 and 2022 for late tax returns.

Of the £12m+ imposed in fines during 2021 and 2022, many were later rescinded.

More than 1300 individual fines and more than 900 company fines were withdrawn “for a number of reasons”. For individuals this included people being below the allowance for income tax, an individual had left the island prior to the start of the tax year, or an individual was ill.

The FoI also revealed that nearly 4,000 individual tax returns and nearly 900 company returns have still not been filed for 2021 and 2022.

Data isn’t available for 2023 yet, but a spokesperson for the Revenue Service said that penalties have not yet been imposed on anyone who hasn’t submitted their tax return for that year because staff are instead “focussed on supporting customers with filing outstanding returns and issuing interim tax and contributions assessments to ensure timely collection of 2025 tax revenues”.