Friday 14 November 2014
The deadline for 2013 tax returns is 30 November 2014. Submit yours now to avoid a £100 late filing penalty.
The 30th November 2014 deadline for submitting 2013 personal tax returns is fast approaching, after which an automatic initial penalty of £100 will be imposed, followed by a continuing penalty of £10 for each day that the return remains outstanding. Whilst over 80% of individuals have already filed their personal tax return, the Director of Income Tax would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that they may complete their return online and would invite those who have yet to submit their 2013 tax return to now do so using this facility.
Rob Gray, Director of Income Tax, said:
"If individuals submit their 2013 return online by 30 November 2014, they will be entered into a free draw (subject to terms and conditions) for a chance to win one of three cash prizes of £2,500, £1,500 or £1,000. Please go to https://eforms.gov.gg to register and join over 13,800 other customers who are already filing their returns online.
A "pre-population" facility benefits those who file their returns online, by automatically entering some text (such as bank account details) in returns filed online in following years, avoiding part of the chore of completing a paper tax return".
Anyone who does not wish to take advantage of the benefits of filing online, can download and print a paper return from the Income Tax Office website at www.gov.gg/forms. Paper returns are also available to collect from the Income Tax Office and a number of points around the island, which include, the Citizen's Advice Bureau, the Guille-Alles Library, the States Office in Alderney and the Administration Office in Herm. Details of further collection points can also be found at www.gov.gg/personaltaxreturns.
Income Tax Office Improvement Programme (ITOIP) Update
The Minister of the Treasury and Resources Department, Deputy Gavin St Pier, said:
"In March 2014, I announced the launch of an improvement programme for the Income Tax Office. The core objectives of this programme are to provide a customer focused Income Tax service which meets the needs of Guernsey and Alderney, delivering substantial improvements in performance. The intention is to take a different approach to working, to enable appropriate levels of service to be delivered, including through understanding and listening to the needs of islanders.
The first stage of this programme is to ensure that the arrears of work at the Income Tax Office are reduced to a manageable level before the end of this year. An initial step to help achieve this was the allocation of additional resources to the Income Tax Office, on a temporary basis, to ensure that this target may be met and enable other officers to progress other initiatives which aim to provide a longer term solution."
Rob Gray, Director of Income Tax, said:
"To achieve the first milestone of this journey, a different approach is required, as simply increasing staffing levels is not an option. Historically, we have raised any enquiries on tax returns before issuing assessments. Feedback that we have received shows that islanders want assessments to be issued as soon as possible so that they have an idea of where they may stand financially. We have listened to this and will be issuing assessments, in most cases, using the information that taxpayers provide on their personal tax returns. Queries will normally be raised after the assessment has been issued, and any amendments made once the customer has responded.This is similar to how self-assessment regimes operate in some other jurisdictions, such as the UK and Canada.
This emphasizes the need for Islanders to ensure that their tax returns are complete and accurate when they are submitted, but also that details of wages and salaries provided by employers, is complete and accurate, which is why the Treasury and Resources Department put a proposal to the States in September to introduce a penalty for employers who repeatedly submit incorrect or incomplete information under the E T I Scheme."
Following enhancements to the automatic assessing of returns filed online, including changes to allow the Income Tax Office to process paper returns through the automatic assessing facility, over 29,500 (which equates to 76%) of the tax returns received this year have already been assessed. Continued improvements in reducing how long it takes to deal with correspondence and returns are ongoing.
ENDS
