Assessments

You may receive different types of assessments from the Revenue Service depending on your circumstances. 

Independent taxation was introduced in 2023. This means each individual is taxed separately, regardless of their marital status. More information on independent taxation can be found here.

• Final Tax Assessments

  • Your final assessment is issued when we process your tax return for the year. The assessment will include all your income (and that of your spouse if you are jointly assessed) and grant you all of the allowances that you are entitled to. It will show you what tax you needed to pay on your income for that year. Any tax deducted at source by your employer or pension providers in that year may be offset against the tax that is shown on the assessment.
  • If you have a professional advisor (and you have given us the authority to discuss your affairs with them), they will receive a copy of the assessment.
  • A statement will be sent with the assessment and that will confirm if you have tax owing or if you will receive a refund. The statement will also show you details of any tax that you have paid since the date of the last statement issued.
  • You will need to pay any amount outstanding by the due date shown on the statement.
  • If you do not agree with the figures in your Final Assessment, you can appeal against it using  Form 690(a) [155kb]. The appeal must be submitted within 30 days of the date of the assessment. You can find more informtion on appeals here.

• Separate and Joint Assessments

  • Up to and including the calendar year 2022, married couples and civil partners were jointly assessed automatically from the year following the date of marriage/civil partnership. So, if you married in 2021 you would be jointly assessed for the tax year 2022, unless you had requested separate assessments before 31 March 2022. The lead taxpayer, being either the male in an opposite sex relationship or the elder partner in a same sex relationship, is responsible for dealing with the tax affairs once you are jointly assessed.
  • Independent taxation was introduced in 2023. Each person is treated separately and is responsible for their own tax affairs. This means that if you married or entered into a civil partnership in 2022, or later, you would continue to be assessed separately.

• I am married but would like to be assessed separately from my spouse, is this possible?

  • If you married in 2022, (or entered into a civil partnership) you would continue to be treated as individuals for the calendar year 2022. Independent taxation was introduced from the calendar year 2023, and so your affairs would continue to be dealt with separately (although you may transfer any unused allowances to your spouse from 2023). Further information on independent taxation is available here.
  • If you married before 1 January 2022, you must have made an election, in writing, before 31 March in the year following the year of your marriage, to enable separate assessments to be put in place. If the election was not made by this time, joint assessments would be issued for years up to and including 2022. With the introduction of independent taxation from 2023, your tax affairs will be separated from 1 January 2023 and you will each then become responsible for your own tax affairs.

• Does being separately assessed affect the total amount of tax that we have to pay?

  • No, unless you are subject to the tax cap or standard charge (see below).
  • A married couple will in total pay the same amount of income tax whether they are assessed jointly or separately. If you have previously chosen to be separately assessed, you each received a personal allowance. When the final assessment is issued, if one of you hasn't used your allowance in full, then the unused proportion of the allowance will automatically transfer to your spouse. For this reason, both income tax returns will need to be submitted before your assessment can be finalised.
  • Should a separately assessed couple be subject to the tax cap (£300,000 for 2023) or the standard charge (currently £40,000) then you would each be capped or pay the standard charge, as opposed to just paying one cap/standard charge if you were jointly assessed.
  • This is because where an application is made to be separately assessed, the individuals involved shall be assessed and taxed "as if they were not married".
  • Independent taxation was introduced in 2023. Separate assessments are no longer available and each individual is responsible for their own tax affairs; for completing their own tax returns and paying their own tax. More information on independent taxation (including the ability to transfer unused allowances) is available here.

• How do I apply to be separately assessed and is there a deadline?

  • If you are married and wish to be separately assessed, a written request should have been submitted to us before 31 March 2022.

• If I am separately assessed, how do I declare interest earned on joint accounts?

  • You should only declare your own income on your income tax return. If you are separately assessed and hold a joint bank account with your spouse, you should only declare your share of the interest, likewise, if you hold a joint mortgage, you should each claim only your share of the interest paid.

• What do I do if I am separately assessed but no longer want to be?

  • The same person who made the original request for separate assessments would have needed to write to the Director by 31 March 2022 to withdraw the application for 2022.
  • However independent taxation was introduced from 1 January 2023, and from that date all married couples or civil partners will be independently assessed, regardless of whether they were previously jointly or separately assessed. There will no longer be an option to be jointly assessed with your spouse.
  • Couples who are currently separately assessed will not need to withdraw the original application, as independent taxation will automatically apply to everyone. More information on independent taxation is available here.

• Contributions Assessments

  • If you are self employed or non-employed, you may receive an assessment from us setting out contributions you need to pay. This will be based on the latest income information that we hold for you, and it may be revised once further tax figures become available.
  • If you do not agree with the figure included for your income, please contact us by email.

• Interim Assessments

  • Interim assessments are issued to help customers who don't have their tax deducted at source to plan and make their tax payments on time. Tax not deducted at source might include tax from:
    • Business income
    • Rent
    • States pensions
    • Investments (such as bank interest)
  • Interim assessments won't include any income where tax is already being deducted at source, for example tax taken from your wages by your employer.
  • The figures included in the interim assessment will be based on the amounts included in your 2022 interim assessment and increased by the Retail Price Index (RPI) as published by the States of Guernsey for the previous December. The allowances given will depend on your circumstances. If you are working or receiving a pension for which you have a coding notice, then some or all of your allowances will be included in your coding notice and there will be little or no allowance available to be given in the assessment (as the allowances are already being used against your wages/pensions). There will also be no allowances in the assessment if our records indicate that, for previous years, your income was above the limit for the withdrawal of personal and/or other allowances; this limit is £90,000 for 2023.
  • Your assessment will show what we believe you owe. The assessment also asks you to make quarterly payments and tells you when these payments will be due.
  • If you believe there is a discrepancy between the amounts we have included in the assessment and what your actual income will be for the year, then please contact us. There is no right of appeal against an interim assessment as we will just revise figures up or down as you tell us. You can contact us by phone or email or you can fill in this request for revision form  Request for Revision of Interim Assessment [155kb]
  • The assessment will be revised when your tax return for the relevant year has been received and processed. The final assessment issued at that time will include all of your income and will give you all of the allowances to which you are entitled.
  • If you have a professional advisor and you have given us authority to disuss your affairs with them, they will also receive a copy of your assessment.

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