Many Jersey employers are still not prepared for the introduction of the Income Tax Instalment System (ITIS) according to a Channel Island payroll specialist. Les Bichard MBA, Business Development Director at Guernsey based Global Computing, met a cross section of island businesses at an open workshop held at the Pomme d'Or Hotel and he says there is an alarmingly high level of misunderstanding over the new scheme:

"A lot of businesses are going to be taken by surprise if they do not act quickly to update or renew their payroll software and procedures. I have been talking to employers who despite all of the recent publicity have no idea that from January next year they will need to be filling monthly returns. They need to make some informed decisions before the end of this year so they are ready for ITIS."

From January, all Jersey employees will have the appropriate amount deducted from their wages each month to cover their 2004 tax liability.

"My advice to any businesses which need to update their payroll package is to look around carefully" says Mr Bichard:

"Contact more than one supplier and choose the one which can fit your specific needs into a purpose built package. Income tax and Social Security have produced software for employers who do not have payroll systems, but it's important to remember that this will only cover basic ITIS and SS requirements. Look for a package that is suitable for all payment processing including full compliance with the new ITIS and Benefits in Kind (BIK) legislation and with integrated HR functionality".

Mr. Bichard adds that payroll programmers have had a challenging time:

"It is only in the last six months or so that the Income tax Department has been able to fully liase with software houses to help them develop suitable packages to support ITIS. It would have been favourable to have a longer run-in time, but from Global Computing's point of view, our clients have shown that we have come up with a fully compliant and user friendly version of our Profile Enterprise payroll management system."