Islanders battle States over late tax form fines

The scale of the problem is unclear, but a long queue snaked down the stairs of Edward T. Wheadon House yesterday morning, as islanders waited for more than an hour to challenge fines imposed. Many had received bills on Friday, warning them an immediate £200 fine, with a further £10 per day added.

Phone lines were jammed and many emails went unanswered, leading to people having to attend the office in person.

A Revenue Services spokesman confirmed that penalty notices were sent to some 5,500 people who were shown on the States computer system as having not submitted a 2019 return.

‘While checks were undertaken prior to the issue of the penalty notices, it has been identified that some penalty notices were issued in error,’ they said.

‘Where this is the case, the penalty will be rescinded and an apology given to the customer. The cause of these errors will be investigated.’

On Sunday, the tax return website stated that before a penalty was imposed, the Guernsey Revenue Service would give at least one month’s warning to the affected customers by letter. But by Monday morning this had changed to say that any return not received by the deadline would immediately face fines.

The spokesperson confirmed that the system had changed this year, after the tax deadline was put back by four months due to delays related to Covid-19.

The Guernsey Press was not allowed to speak to people in the queue at Edward T. Wheadon House, but as they exited the building many said they had completed their 2019 income tax form and could not understand why they had been sent a penalty.

Janice Ozanne said she was determined to fight for her rights.

‘When I got home from work on Friday and opened this letter I almost had a seizure.

‘Of course you can’t do anything on a Saturday and Sunday, so that’s £20 more on my bill.

‘I posted it months and months ago, and they lost it because of incompetence, and I’ve got to pay the £200. Look at these people who can hardly walk, there’s no lift because it doesn’t work. I spoke to a nice chap in there ages ago and was told everything was done.

‘I phoned at 8.45am this morning when they opened and I was nearly an hour waiting, it’s press one if you want someone to phone you back, well we know that they won’t phone back.’

The Revenue Services spokesman said that if a person believed they received a penalty notice in error, they should email taxpenaltyqueries@gov.gg with details of how they submitted their return and their tax reference, so that this can be investigated.

They added that common queries included when a return has been submitted at a different tax reference, such as following a marriage, or where someone has completed their return online, but not yet pressed submit.

'It's a shocking state of affairs' - Age Concern

OLDER islanders have been calling Age Concern, worried about suddenly receiving fines for tax returns they argue they had already submitted.

Chairman David Inglis monitors the charity’s support phone line.

‘People are initially very angry because there was no warning about this,’ he said.

‘If they [the States] can organise a Covid vaccination programme based on age, why on earth can’t they do that with Income Tax forms? It’s very draconian because it’s threatening that within a few days they will be penalised and will be penalised further if they don’t pay. It’s a shocking state of affairs.’

Ronald Herve, 91, was upset and angry when he received notice that he was being fined.

‘When I got this demand I was enraged on Friday,’ he said.

‘I think it’s a bit of a disgrace, sending out this sort of notice.’

He said he sent in his 2019 return by post.

‘I phoned Guernsey Post and they said I’d have to go back to Income Tax because as far they were concerned it should have been delivered,’ he said. ‘I have a receipt for postage signed and dated by Guernsey Post.’

Adding to his frustration was the difficulty he had on Friday contacting anyone at Income Tax, and said he was on hold for a long time before being put through, only to be cut off.

Prior to receiving the fine letter, he had heard nothing from the tax department for some time.

An 83-year-old man, who asked not to be named, said he did his return online and was also distressed to receive a fine on Friday.

After submitting his form online early last year, in May he received an account from the tax department setting out an amount that he needed to pay back, and he did this.

Checking online, he found that the 2019 form was showing as ‘submitted’.

The man said that after making contact with the authority he was told that there had been ‘a few mistakes’ but while the assessor he spoke to apologised, he was told that he would have to fill in an appeal form in order to have the penalty cancelled.

Online, both the Guernsey Press website and Facebook page, as well as other social media sites, saw a number of islanders saying they had submitted returns, but still incurred fines, showing that the problem has been widespread.