Jersey's Treasury Minister admits the island's tax service needs improvement

Jersey's Treasury Minister admits the island's tax service needs improvement, but believes the right investments are being made.

It comes in response to islanders reporting issues with things like overpayments and inaccurate ITIS rates.

ITV Channel TV spoke to one islander who told us they had been wrongly charged £9,000 in overdue tax in 2023, despite leaving Jersey more than a year ago.

Many of the issues reported appear to stem back to when Revenue Jersey moved to a new computer system in 2019.

Jersey Tax Director John Shenton said: "The computer system was introduced a while ago and there have been numerous glitches and updates. I do have some sympathy for the tax department in that they haven't been able to get to the bottom of it.

He added: "But what they are producing now in relation to payment statements, queries, and everything else does seem to be worse than ever."

Jersey's Treasury Minister responds to claims the tax service isn't always working for islanders.

Treasury Minister Deputy Ian Gorst said in response: "We've got investment in staff and are going out to the parishes and speaking to islanders.

"We are investing in the helpline as well so islanders can actually have the telephone answered.

"We know we're not quite where we need to be, but we'll carry on that work".

Deputy Carina Alves, however, feels the tax office is lacking investment.

Deputy Carina Alves says there needs to be more joined up thinking across government departments to improve the tax service.

She said: "There is a lack of explanation and delays in getting assessments back. There's a lot of frustration around tax percentages going up and down.

"The overpayment of tax isn't actually communicated to people.

"The people that are working in the tax department are brilliant but I think they are very overstretched".

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