Deputy fears income tax delays will follow US pact

A TAX transparency agreement with the US will put more pressure on the Income Tax Office, which is still struggling to clear its backlog of returns, a deputy has said.

However, income tax director Rob Gray said the office could cope with added work resulting from the Fatca agreement, which was approved by the States at its December meeting, without disruption to return assessments.

Deputy Michelle Le Clerc feared the pact would lead to 'teething problems' and place more pressure on the office.

'It takes time to settle in,' she said.

'The requirement for Fatca will mean there is more information sent out and to collate. I am concerned because we are already behind the processing of assessments.'

Mr Gray said responsibility for the automatic exchange of information lay with the office's Compliance and Investigation Unit, not its assessing staff.

'If additional inter-governmental agreements are negotiated, or there are significant additional calls on the team, such as a consequence of enquiries arising from the US, the UK or any other future IGA partner jurisdiction, workloads within CIU will be reviewed to identify whether further staff are required, whether through reallocation or reprioritisation of work,' he said.