Can tax ever be less taxing?

Without them needing to lift a finger, their income tax liability for the previous year had been resolved.

Who knew that young people leaving education and starting work aren’t routinely required to complete a tax form? Their assessment is calculated from their earnings returns and tax paid through the ETI scheme.

It seems a very sensible move which has saved countless hours of staff time and cost and made lives much easier for those islanders who benefit.

It’s a rare shaft of light for the Revenue Service which, as information published today has revealed, is still struggling to address its backlog of unprocessed tax returns, while, more happily, testing and familiarising themselves with new computer systems said to be being introduced in a ‘measured, reasonable manner’.

Policy & Resources maintains that progress is being made on the backlog. It rejects the suggestion from the former political head of the service of ‘chronic failure’ in the service.

But its staff are now just weeks away from having to face the full impact of separate assessment of married couples – a decision that remains puzzling for many islanders, who never wanted the extra responsibility for themselves, or for an over-stretched service.