Guernsey tax backlog 'worse than thought'

Guernsey's tax backlog is worse than thought and will take two years to clear, an update on the troubled Revenue Services has revealed.

An estimated 106,500 thousand individual pieces of work, including tax assessments, repayments and bereavement cases, are outstanding.

Though that is 60,000 fewer than in mid-March, it remains a considerable workload which it is estimated will take until October 2028 to clear.

A forensic probe of the well-documented problems has been going on since the spring, and has revealed the backlog is 'more extensive and has been building over a longer period than was previously understood', the States has said.

An ongoing Recovery Programme is in place to tackle the underlying issues.

States of Guernsey Chief Executive Boley Smillie says Revenue Services has had problems for 12 years and the transformation programme failed because it was happening alongside normal working.

He admits this is also a problem across other States departments, but says it is important to be honest about the issues.

"I have a high level of confidence in the new leadership of the Revenue Service and, in particular, the author of this report.

"In less than a year the Director of Revenue Service Operations has brought greater clarity to the scale of the challenge and, importantly, the position has stopped getting worse and is now improving.

"There is a great deal still to do, but I have every confidence in the approach she is taking and she has my full support."

The update says the challenges are wider than any single workstream, and the introduction of independent taxation alone increased the annual workload by around 12,000 returns without corresponding extra resource.

Jean Mehers, Director of Revenue Service Operations has apologised for the frustration and uncertainty the delays are having on islanders waiting for assessments, repayments, to simply responses to their enquiries.

“Reducing backlogs, improving the level of service and restoring confidence in the Revenue Service remain my immediate priorities. "

Work is being done in date order, and customers are being told that contacting the service about an existing case will not more them up the queue.

President of the Policy & Resources Committee, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, said the update had shone a 'welcome light' on what went wrong and why, and what is being done to sort it out.

"It’s clear now that this has been a problem many, many years in the making, and is worse than anyone previously understood.

"While recovery will take time to reach completion, we can expect to see continuous improvement and reduction of the backlog over the coming months. Regular publication of statistics will help to track and measure the progress that islanders rightly expect.”