Complex fault hits tax systems

Wednesday 08 March 2023

A "complex fault" affecting the online income tax portal could mean the deadline for filing 2021 returns has to be extended even further.

The original deadline was pushed back to 7 March, and then 17 March.

Work to correct the problem which was first noted on Sunday, is taking longer than hoped and is currently involving all of the States' technology partners including Agilisys which has a multi-million pound contract to manage all States IT systems. 

The Director of the Revenue Service, Nicky Forshaw said earlier this week: “We’re extremely sorry for these technical issues, and we know customers expect better. We’re working with our technical specialists to establish what has gone wrong and fix it as soon as possible.”

She asked that people did not call the Revenue Service as the focus was on fixing the problem, however the queue for people wanting to file paper returns instead of doing it online was said to stretch out of the tax office at Edward T Wheadon House.

As work has continued for a second full day to fix the problems, it's now been admitted that it is going to take some time to resolve and that the tax return deadline "will be kept under review and extended further if needed".

On this occasion the apology was not attributed to any member of staff with "the States of Guernsey" saying it "is very sorry to customers for this inconvenience and thanks them for their continuing patience".

Anyone trying to file a tax return or complete other Revenue Service related tasks are again asked not to contact the team as all resources remain focused on restoring services.