Guernsey Press

GST, or Go Slow Tax

IT’S the new year and as a well-organised individual I’m ready to submit my income tax return for 2022.

Published

Oh dear, no, I can’t do it yet. The tax office is years behind with our returns and I haven’t heard from them yet about the 2021 return I submitted many months ago.

How on earth can government predict income and shortfall for the island with a department collecting money for them being so far behind?

Perhaps Income Tax is still all working from home or suffering from a dodgy computer system? And this backlog is before personal tax returns nearly double shortly as husband and wife will have to submit separate returns. Whose bright idea was that?

Thank goodness other States bodies are more efficient or we might be waiting months for a fire engine, a police car or sewage cart to arrive.

Still, why should our deputies be worried? Why don’t they introduce a new tax and get Income Tax to set it all up? New computer systems to start from scratch and all island retailers and service providers to be brought up to speed.

Just rely on Income Tax to sort it. Then money will come rolling in. In 2030, or perhaps 2040, who knows or cares? The deputies will be long out of office by then.

Let’s call it GST or Go Slow Tax – just right for a Go Slow Department to implement.

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