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Delay in Jersey's e-gov project could be contributing to unpaid taxes

Jersey's 'on-hold' e-gov project could be contributing to millions of pounds of unpaid tax according to the island's Public Accounts Committee.

The current system to pay taxes in the island means people have to post or hand in their tax forms to Cyril Le Marquand house.

A new online process has been proposed but the £7 million e-gov project stalled after the deadline to award the key contracts was missed.

But now, even though funding for the project has been agreed, it's expected to take another two or three years to complete.

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Deputy Andrew Lewis, believes that an alternative system could hold the key to collecting taxes.

The income tax department is still sadly lacking in an IT system that's fit for purpose and that won't be helping the collection of taxes.

Any money that's not sitting in the Treasury and is still sitting with the taxpayer is a concern to me if it's owed to the Treasury.

– Deputy Andrew Lewis, Public Accounts Committee

The Public Accounts Committee believe filling forms in online will help lead to more accurate assessments and make the tax office better equipped to deal with the £2 billion paid in to them over five years.

Well it'll be a lot simpler, clearly. Everybody will have far greater control.

It'll be a lot easier to administer so the cost of administration will reduce as well so it's a win-win all round as far as that's concerned, but of course they'll be a great deal more transparency from tax collection point of view so I think it will speed the process up and that's obviously to be welcomed.

– Senator Alan Maclean, Treasury Minister