Service levels at the income tax office ‘improving rapidly’

Problems facing the beleaguered Revenue Service, which administers the income tax system, reached the States Assembly yesterday, as deputies relayed complaints from members of the public.

Policy & Resources president Lyndon Trott accepted that levels of service at the income tax office had become inadequate, but claimed they were turning a corner.

‘We have seen data which indicate that the situation is improving and improving rapidly,’ said Deputy Trott.

‘Things are getting better rapidly and we anticipate the legacy problems that the service has faced will soon dissipate.’

Deputy David De Lisle described the service as ‘not fit for purpose’ and urged P&R to intervene more assertively to sort out the problems.

Deputy Rob Prow wished to avoid blaming staff, who he said were working under considerable pressure, but listed a series of service failures which income tax customers were still experiencing.

Deputy Trott said he wanted to ‘apologise unreservedly’ for the problems customers were facing, and referred to various changes which he anticipated would soon lead to improved levels of service.

‘New computer systems have been introduced to replace legacy systems that are over 30 years old,’ he said.

‘A risk and processing engine is in place which enables online returns to be triaged and assessed automatically

‘I can advise that the Revenue Service is at its full human resource complement. That’s the first time for some time that it has been fully staffed.’

The States agreed additional staff posts at income tax as part of the 2025 Budget debate in November.

Deputy Trott also referred to a recent decision to create two senior roles from the duties previously held by the director of the revenue service alone.

Deputy Lester Queripel told the States he had recently witnessed ‘two members of the public verbally abusing a member of staff from the Revenue Service’. He wanted to place on record that the member of staff had remained ‘calm, civilised and dignified’.

He asked Deputy Trott if he agreed that officials were doing ‘a wonderful job’ in difficult circumstances.

‘I can understand why some people feel very hot-headed,’ said Deputy Trott.

‘It’s a credit to our staff that they are able to handle those sort of conditions calmly and maturely, and I thank them for it.’