Revenue Jersey resourcing (FOI)

​Request

Please could you answer the following questions:

A

What is the average response time for Jersey Tax to respond to an initial email query?

B

How many staff are employed at the Jersey Tax office at the time of this request?

C

Since 1 January 2021, how many days absence have there been by Jersey Tax employees?

D

Of the Jersey Tax employees, how many are contractually obliged to answer email concerns from members of the public?

Response

A

Revenue Jersey is currently responding to around 80% of emails within 28 working days of receipt.  The length of time taken will vary according to the complexity of the enquiry.   

• the department normally receives between 500 and 800 emails weekly: during 2020 (principally because of the Covid-19 Pandemic) and to date, volumes routinely exceeded 1200 weekly.  (Telephone calls have also increased over the same period by almost 80%.)

• taxpayer- confidentiality issues can limit the scope to respond to taxpayers by email: in that event, a letter would be written

• Revenue Jersey endeavours to prioritise enquiries involving financial distress

• multiple emails from the same individual about the same issue can delay response times due to the need to link correspondence

• Revenue Jersey continues to encourage people to self-serve on the website (where that is possible) and otherwise ideally to contact them by telephone where tax officers aim to provide a “once and done” service – resolving any issue at that first point of contact

B

As of 11 February 2021, Revenue Jersey had 116 full-time equivalent tax officers on its payroll.

• Revenue Jersey currently has a budgeted complement of 120.5 full-time equivalent staff across all of its functions including, for example, Personal Income Tax operations; Business Income Tax operations; international-tax-data exchange; tax-compliance activities; transformation work; and tax policy.

• The Treasury Minister has approved additional funding to recruit more tax officers to help cope with the increasing volumes of work arising both from the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing transformation work.  Staff recruitment and training is under way.

C

To 9 February 2021, Revenue Jersey managers have reported 121 staff days of annual leave; 78.5 days of longer-term sickness-related absences (hospitalisation, long-term medical treatments and so on); 75.5 days special absences (for example parental leave, external training); and 42.5 days relating to short-term sickness.

D

Every tax officer, regardless of grade, routinely handles correspondence from members of the public, within their areas of technical expertise.