More than 6,500 people did not pay their bills by the 5 December deadline and now face a ten per cent surcharge.Total arrears amount to around £10 million and Royal Court and Petty Debts Court summons are already being prepared for everyone who has yet to pay.Last year 5,935 people failed to pay on time, but this year 6,573 will be surcharged – almost 12 per cent of the personal taxpayers in the Island.The total surcharge penalty will raise an extra £1.7 million for the States.The figures have renewed calls for a PAYE tax system, with Citizens Advice Bureau manager Francis Le Gresley claiming that the government would be ‘irresponsible not to act on these figures’.Comptroller of Income Tax Malcolm Campbell explained that there were two factors in play.He said: ‘The number of personal taxpayers has increased, as the tax threshold was frozen for a number of years and therefore more people have become liable to pay.’But the other reason is that a lot of people are not really deterred by the ten per cent.
They are including that in their payment plans and will take three or four months to pay off the outstanding debt.’
