Guernsey Chamber of Commerce: Statement on the Revenue Service Backlog Report
The Guernsey Chamber of Commerce welcomes the decision to publish a full and honest account of the backlog affecting personal tax, corporate tax, contributions and repayments. Transparency is a necessary first step, and we recognise the scale of work involved in establishing this baseline.
However, the report does not tell islanders or businesses anything they have not already been living with for years. Businesses have absorbed the cost of that failure in delayed assessments, tied-up credit balances and the administrative burden of chasing a system that could not tell them where they stood with a simple statement.
Our members' frustration is not with this report. It is with how long it has taken to get an honest picture, and with a Transformation Programme that consumed years and resources without delivering the automation and system functionality it promised.
We will be posing the following questions:
What is the longer-term digital strategy for Revenue Service? The report is clear on backlog recovery and completing existing system functionality, but what comes after that?
Is personal self-assessment being considered? Rather than Revenue continuing to assess every personal tax return, is there a plan to move towards taxpayer self-assessment with Revenue focusing on exceptions and compliance checks?
What is being done urgently to address taxpayer statements and account visibility? Taxpayers and agents need to be able to see a clear, reliable statement showing liabilities, payments, allocations, credits and amounts outstanding. Given the report acknowledges ongoing reconciliation issues and confusion around credit balances, what is the timetable for providing accurate and understandable statements?
What does “automated corporate tax assessments” actually mean end-to-end? The Revenue side may now be automated, but agents are manually entering considerably more information into corporate tax returns to enable that automation. Has the administrative burden simply moved from Revenue to taxpayers and agents?
Is there a plan for direct submission of coded/iXBRL accounts and tax computations? Could accounts software submit the structured data Revenue needs rather than agents manually rekeying information that already exists digitally?
Is API/software integration part of the future strategy? For example, direct filing from tax/accounting software into Revenue systems rather than information being manually transferred between systems?
Is the ultimate aim exception-based processing? In other words, can straightforward, digitally submitted returns be processed automatically, with Revenue staff concentrating on exceptions, risk and compliance?
How will future digitalisation be measured from the customer perspective? Will success include reducing administration for taxpayers and agents, rather than simply reducing manual processing and headcount requirements within Revenue?
Are we simply fixing and automating the existing Revenue model, or is there a plan to fundamentally redesign how tax is administered in Guernsey using self-assessment, structured digital data and exception-based processing?
The Chamber is ready to work constructively with the Revenue Service and Policy & Resources on the next phase of recovery.