"The Silent One - No Response Yet To My Letter!!!"

More than £15m in unpaid tax is written off

 

States Treasurer Laura Rowley

MORE than £15m in unpaid taxes and contributions has been ‘written off’ by the States in the last five years.

Figures obtained by the JEP under the States’ anti-secrecy code have showed that the taxman and the Social Security department have given up on more than £15m in GST, company tax, personal tax and contributions.

The response from the Treasury department refused to reveal procedures for writing off tax debts, but said that the usual reasons included death, bankruptcy and people leaving the Island.

But the figures also show a very encouraging trend – the amount of tax written off in 2011is just half of the average over the past four years.

States Treasurer Laura Rowley said that more was being done on the issue than ever before, adding that the 99.6% collection rate was a record high for the department.