Another example of a civil servant who seems incompetent to run the department of the States which collects a huge amount of revenue. Being knowledgeable about tax doesn't mean that somebody can manage a big team. The local tax profession expressed major concerns about RG before he was appointed. It fell on deaf ears. It will be interesting to hear Gavin St Pier's comments next year on any changes in the level of income tax receipts. The information will be nothing other than a guess. I hear that one of the Big 4 accountancy firms approached Income Tax with an offer of help but was aggressively told to go away. They have a massive problem and don't seem to be either capable of resolving it or desirous of resolving it. Don't panic Mr Mainwaring? I would be. Mike Brown - another mess for you to sort out, but how the hell has it been allowed to get into this state? As another poster has commented, they knew exactly how many returns they had to process and what they resources they required, so what's gone wrong? Proper use of IT should enable what is a data processing department to handle much greater capacity with fewer staff. In the States of Guernsey it seems to have completely the opposite effect. Why? We deserve to be told. How many staff do they have compared with 10 years ago? How many tax returns do they have to process compared with 10 years ago? How much has been spent on IT enhancements in that period? IT spending has either been wasted, or not enough has been spent on it. Either answer is an issue. Seems to me like the Tax Office is being left to sort out its problems but one would hope that T&R are on top of sorting it out. Does anyone have confidence that the Tax Office is capable of resolving the problems? As an aside, anybody who has submitted a return and is owed money should be compensated at exactly the same rate of interest that late payers get charged. It must work both ways, surely. Just wait till FATCA and "son of FATCA" come in. The Tax Office's current workload will pale into insignificance.
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
