Wednesday 12 February 2020
As part of the States of Guernsey commitment to more responsive and flexible systems for customers, the introduction of Independent Taxation has been included in the final phase of the Revenue Service Transformation Programme.
President of the Policy & Resources Committee, Deputy Gavin St Pier, said:
'The current system of joint taxation for married couples is outdated and inequitable. Frankly, in 2020, it's an indefensible embarrassment. So I am delighted that the States of Deliberation made a decision a little while ago to implement independent taxation, in the knowledge that making the change will also align the rules around income tax with those around social security contributions, which are already gender neutral. The change is therefore a key enabler for the wider Revenue Service change programme and will allow greater benefits to be realised through integrating the services collecting revenue and reducing the complexity for islanders. The reason it has taken longer than I would have liked to sort this problem is whilst it is a simple policy change, it is very complex in practice so it's much more cost effective to do it as part of wider change programme.'
This proposal will mean that an extra 13,000 people will be required to complete a Tax Return but with a more flexible IT system in place, will see a reduction of the operational impact on the service in the long run.
