Friday 10 January 2014
Treasury and Resources has confirmed today that it has reviewed the decision to delay availability of tax return filing facilities by the Income Tax Office.
At a Board meeting yesterday, it was agreed that customer interests must be put first and that every effort should be made to open up the on-line facility earlier than planned.
A spokesperson for the Department confirmed:
"This was the first opportunity the Board had to review the change in operational policy. We are conscious that many Islanders will always prefer to submit their returns in January. The Board is keen to encourage more customers to file their returns on-line by making them available at an earlier opportunity, which is also important in trying to help manage overall workloads within the Income Tax Office in the longer term".
The Board's intention is that the on-line facility will be made available as soon as possible and certainly no later than Monday 20th January. It also intends to bring forward the date for availability of paper tax returns and will confirm further details on this point in due course.
The spokesperson continued:
"The Board regards tax administration as a 'customer service' to which taxpayers have a fair expectation of reasonable service standards. In the Board's view, for a number of reasons, service levels have been sub-optimal for a year or so. Therefore, the Board have at their request been regularly updated on the operational challenges faced by the Income Tax Office and have been supportive of management initiatives to improve performance. Consequently, the Board have identified that improvements in performance are an operational priority in 2014 for the management of the Department."
ENDS
