REVENUE JERSEY:
MAKING TAX LESS TAXING
It arrives in the post. You look at it, groan, and put it with a pile of other documents that you’d rather not deal with right now. Then a few months later, you’re digging through mountains of bank statements, utility bills, and the odd Chinese takeaway menu just to unearth it again. Yes, it’s your tax return.
By Maddy Jouanny, Communications, States of Jersey
Next comes the difficulty of actually filling in the return. If you’re prone to accidentally mixing up numbers or writing your information in the wrong place, the paper form becomes a crumpled mess of crossings out and smudged ink. By the time you’re eventually finished, it’s a rush to get to the Taxes Office to shove the form through a letter box before the deadline.
While this rush and panic may be something of an annual tradition for the 13,000 of us who submit in the last week before the deadline, filling in your paper tax return can be tedious and frustrating. But the way we file our tax returns, as well as the way that our social security contributions are collected, is about to change.
By 2020, the States of Jersey will have completely overhauled the existing Tax and Social Security regime to make way for a combined new function called Revenue Jersey. Modernising the way in which taxes are assessed and collected, Revenue Jersey will create a single team of experts to collect States revenues. It’s all part of the One Gov vision to deliver a modern, efficient public service for islanders.
Under the new system, the most significant change for islanders is that we will be able to file our personal tax returns
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online. This is great news for those of us who prefer doing things digitally: no longer will you have to pore over a paper form - it will be possible to fill in and submit your return on your computer or tablet instead. The digitisation will make it a lot easier for islanders to file their returns, and a proposed new tax law will allow those who file online two extra months to submit.
As well as being able to file the return online, Revenue Jersey will also make it possible for taxpayers to access information whenever they want to. Instead of spending the lunch hour queueing to change your ITIS rate, the new Revenue Jersey system will make it possible to apply to change the rate online. You’ll be able to see your information in an online portal and submit requests online, too; for example, you will be able to request to have any overpaid tax paid back into your bank account, rather than needing to call or e-mail the Taxes Office.
The new system also aims to encourage more collaboration between States revenue teams. No longer will customers have to face the frustration of hearing ‘sorry, you’ll have to go somewhere else to ask that’: in October 2018, the personal tax helpdesk moved to La Motte Street to be closer to other government services. In the past, staff have found that customers often have queries that relate to both taxes and
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