Around 1,500 people in Jersey are starting 2018 with a temporary tax rate as the Taxes Office still has a backlog of 2016 assessments to clear.
It has apologised for what it calls a “shortfall” in services, and has pledged to be back on track within a fortnight.
By the end of the year, it was 6% behind where it was at the end of the previous year when it came to processing assessments.
The Comptroller of Taxes, Richard Summersgill, said: “I apologise for the shortfall in our services. All our tax officers are acutely aware that the service we can currently offer is way below the digitally enabled standards that people encounter in other spheres of life.”
“We are making plans to transform their experience of the Taxes Office, ultimately meaning that, from 2020, taxpayers will be able to submit their returns and receive their tax assessments and ITIS rates online, within minutes rather than months. We will begin communicating with the public about this from spring 2018, once we are fully underway with the change programme.”
Those who pay tax contributions via ITIS towards their current (rather than prior) year liability will receive a temporary 2018 ITIS effective rate based on their last assessed tax bill.
A further small number of people who have received their assessment have yet to receive a 2018 ITIS effective rate to give to their employer because their rate is calculated manually.
For those cases, to avoid any employee’s rate defaulting to the 21%, employers will receive a letter from the Comptroller of Taxes instructing them to apply employees’ December 2017 rate to the January deduction.
All new effective rates will be issued by the end of January, in time for February payroll processing, so this will only apply to January 2018 salary payments.
