Taxation Amendment Law Review
Launch date: 09/06/2021
Review status: Comments published
What is the review about?
The Minister for Treasury and Resources (the Minister) informed the Panel on 16 February 2021 of the Government’s intention to bring a Taxation (Income Tax, Goods and Services Tax and Revenue Administration) (Amendment) (Jersey) Law (the “Taxation Amendment Law”) forward for debate by the States Assembly.
The Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel (the Panel) had previously carried out a review of the, then draft,
Revenue Administration (Jersey) Law 2019 and produced a report which was presented on 23 October 2018 (
S.R.3/2019). This made recommendations that have helped shape elements of the proposed draft Taxation Amendment Law. A number of measures were deferred from the
Finance (2020 Budget) (Jersey) Law at the request of the Panel.
The draft proposition
P.51/2021 was lodged by the Minister for Treasury and Resources on the 18 May 2021 with an accompanying report and the Panel received a briefing on the lodged proposition on the 25th May 2021. This draft Taxation Amendment Law will result in:
- Reduction in the Comptroller of Revenue’s ability to amend a tax assessment, from a time limit of 5 to 2 years, unless the declaration has been made carelessly or deliberately inaccurate
- Power for the Comptroller to refuse an appeal of assessment if it appears there are no legal grounds to do so, this refusal will be able to be appealed
- Empowering the Commissioners of Appeal to publish appeal decisions in an anonymised format, decisions to be published would be determined by that body
- Allowance for charging of interest on late payment of ITIS deductions made by employers, as well as removal of employed individuals from the scope of the interest regime
- Allowing Revenue Jersey to obtain information from individuals and businesses where a person has failed or refused to respond to an informal request for information, notices issued will be able to be appealed
- Updating prosecution provision to allow Revenue Jersey and Law Officers to take cases to court in a more effective manner
- Updating of important technical remediations, principally to the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961, the Revenue Administration (Jersey) Law 2019, the Goods and Services Tax (Jersey) Law 2007 and the Goods and Services Tax (Jersey) Regulations 2007
The Panel identified that this proposition required scrutiny review in order to establish:
- How will the Taxation Amendment Law impact the public, is it fair and clear, what are the benefits and drawbacks?
- What administrative benefits does the Taxation Amendment Law introduce?
- What safeguards are there to ensure the Commissioners of Appeal review all but frivolous appeals made against the Comptroller of Revenue?
- What elements of the Panels previous recommendations have been incorporated into the Taxation Amendment Law?
The Minister for Treasury and resources agreed to hold the debate for the Taxation Amednment Law on 20 July 2020.
Review progress
The Panel has concluded its review and has lodged a
comments paper to the States Assembly.
The Panel has also lodged two Amendments to the Proposition. The first Amendment (
P.51/2021 Amd.) if approved would require the Comptroller of Revenue (the Comptroller) to issue a warning of prosecution liability regarding third party information notices. The second Amendment (
P.51/2021 Amd.(2)) would enable electronic information notices to be issued and remove the need for a ‘wet’ signature on such notices. A report has been prepared to accompany each proposed Amendment.
Terms of reference
2) To consider the consequential impact of the draft Taxation Amendment Law on other related laws and enactments.
3) To consider the wider impact of the draft Taxation Amendment Law on the way Jersey’s tax and revenue systems operate.
4) To ascertain the wider impact of the Taxation Amendment Law on the public.
Call for evidence
Transcripts
