Revenue Service pays £260k late tax repayments fee

Guernsey's revenue service said it had to pay out more than £260,800 in late income tax repayment supplements to islanders.

As of 11 December, it said it still had to pay 1,987 people repayments, including the 5% supplement for the delay.

Scott Bloomfield, the service's head of delivery, said: "Despite the efforts of our teams, we recognise that many people are still waiting for repayments that they are due, for which we apologise."

Repayments issued more than one year after the end of the month when people's completed return are received, automatically include a 5% supplement, he said.

The amount of supplements is below the £467,000 paid out in 2024 and the £631,000 the service had to pay people in 2023.

The delays in repayments have been partly blamed on moving to a new system and the deadline for 2024 tax returns was extended to 31 January 2026 owing to "intermittent issues" accessing the Revenue Service online.

The repayment backlog has been brought down from 11,000 cases in July, which had dropped to 6,000 in August.

Mr Bloomfield said: "We are working through outstanding repayments as quickly as possible."

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