Jersey’s tax collectors are used to asking questions about everyone else’s finances… but now auditors will be asking questions about theirs.
A “detailed” review of Revenue Jersey by the Jersey Audit Office commenced last month to “ensure it delivers an efficient, effective and economic service”, it has emerged.
The audit will discover if the department tasked with collecting taxpayer funds actually constitutes “value for money” itself.
Almost £21 million has already been approved for the tax office to implement adaptations to digital tax systems under the ‘Revenue Transformation Programme’.
Lynn Pamment CBE, the Comptroller and Auditor General, will examine “how well Revenue Jersey uses its resources to manage risk”.
A statement published on the Jersey Audit Office website on Tuesday but not publicly circulated made reference to the tax office’s stated aim to be “among the best of small tax administrations”.
“Revenue Jersey has a role in ensuring that Jersey’s international tax exchange agreements are administered effectively and has a role in supporting the Treasury in forecasting in come each year,” the document explained.
It currently administers and collects in excess of £1.2 billion in taxation revenue each year, and the audit covers Revenue Jersey’s “business-as-usual activities, as well as the use of growth funding for major projects”.
Although the audit will not consider “tax policies and tax policy development”, questions are currently being asked of Revenue Jersey’s internal controls and general corporate governance.
Four criteria being used to “assess relative performance” are listed as leadership and governance, information for decision-making, prioritisation of activity, and value for money.
The latter looks at whether Revenue Jersey has “an accurate picture of the extent to which it is delivering value for money”.
To this end, Jersey’s tax administrator will be audited to find out if it assesses and acts “on intelligence about its relative position against other jurisdictions”.
Other areas of the value-for-money audit include the resources used in resolving errors, the likely cost/benefit ratio of enhanced digitalisation and operating costs as a percentage of revenue.
The audit is being undertaken by affiliates engaged by the C&AG, who are also expected to determine if Revenue Jersey “have and use high-quality information to assess its performance and make management decisions”.
It further asks whether the tax office currently deploys a “mature approach” to “using risk assessment and setting risk appetite across different tax categories”.
The C&AG will be required to “make recommendations to bring about improvement where improvement is needed”.
Findings will follow a document review, followed up by interviews with key officers and potentially with other stakeholders.