Online tax returns portal still down after crash on Sunday

The system has been down since Sunday and there remains uncertainty about when it will be restored.

Up to 10,000 islanders have not yet submitted 2021 tax returns, eight days ahead of the revised deadline of 17 March.

The States said late yesterday that the deadline was being reviewed and could be extended again.

‘Work continues to resolve the fault affecting access to online personal tax returns,’ said a spokesman.

‘Good progress has been made and it is hoped that full access will be restored very soon.’

Policy & Resources is responsible for the Revenue Service, through its treasury lead, Deputy Mark Helyar.

But P&R president Peter Ferbrache spoke for the committee yesterday and said taxpayers were right to be frustrated with the latest in a long line of problems to hit the service recently.

‘We are very concerned at the disruption we’ve seen this week with people unable to access online tax returns just as the deadline approaches,’ said Deputy Ferbrache.

‘We have been updated by the senior officers who are leading the work to fix this problem and that must be the immediate focus.

‘We understand good progress is being made and we expect much better news very shortly. But islanders are rightly very frustrated and we share those feelings.’

Returns for the following tax year – 2022 – were meant to be available from yesterday. The States said they would now be available at the same time as access to 2021 returns is restored.

Other recent problems at the Revenue Service include misinforming taxpayers about their annual personal allowance, incorrectly announcing rebates and advising pensioners of higher social security rates than they are required to pay.

States’ officials last month admitted that public trust in the service had been damaged, but tried to assure customers that mistakes had been put right and should not be repeated.