The number of registered taxpaying companies that have used Government's two-year-old e-tax system to submit this quarter's payroll tax has increased since the last quarter. Usage is however still a long way off from fulfilling the Finance Ministry's vision to make e-filing the preferred method for submitting payroll and other taxes within the next three years.

Last month, Finance Minister Paula Cox launched a campaign to convince more taxpayers to e-file payroll tax for the quarter ended September 30. At the time, she announce that only nine percent of registered taxpayers had used the system to file payroll taxes in the last quarter. Besides advertising in the media, the Ministry's staff contacted registered taxpayers by phone and e-mail to encourage them to file online. The deadline for submission of this period's payroll tax is not until tomorrow, but Tax Commissioner Heather Jacobs Matthews says that response has been strong.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, her department held accounts for 22 percent, or 1,412, of the Island's 6,500 registered taxpayers. This compares to three days ahead of the deadline for the last quarter ended in June when only 16 percent, or 1,068, of registered taxpayers had set up such accounts.

Mrs. Jacobs Matthews is enthusiastic about the increase from 496 businesses (nine percent of the total) who filed online last quarter to 884 (13 percent of the total) who have already filed so far this quarter. She anticipates seeing even more e-tax accounts being set up and used ahead of tomorrow's deadline.

"If 884 people are filing, that is 884 cheques we don't have to worry about, 884 returns we don't have to file away, 884 receipts we don't have to put into the mail," she said. "We see it as phenomenal. It is a major increase. You are looking at 300 more taxpayers that were brought online in such a short space of time. That is more than a 100 percent increase of the people who were filing before and that is only as of Tuesday. My staff are still signing up people as we speak so we expect numbers to increase up to filing and then some people will e-file late."

Of those who have filed so far in this quarter, 151 are categorised as local businesses of all types and 71 are international businesses.

The Tax Commissioner says that with her office realising greater efficiencies she will be able to better focus her annual operating budget of $2.5 million and staff of 27 to give better service to the taxpaying pubic.

She said: "Currently, we have uncollected receivables totalling in excess of $20 million. As more and more taxpayers file online and we service their queries online rather than at the counter, we will be able to shift a significant portion of our staff resources to the collection of these outstanding receivables. By substantially reducing this outstanding amount, we will be able to provide a true measure of how efficient our department is over time ? which I am sure will be of real interest to the taxpaying public. "

The Ministry is also supporting her department in upgrading its old back-office tax system which Mrs. Jacobs Matthews says "requires constant programming and manual intervention".

"Currently the updating of taxpayers' records takes seven to nine weeks," she said. "Our proposed new tax system, which will take a few years to develop, will decrease the updating process to a few weeks, and will allow us to address delinquent taxpayers sooner rather than later."

The Tax Commissioner says that most taxpayers prefer to pay their taxes via credit or debit card rather than via direct debit to their bank accounts. This option is not available yet but should be available by early next year. The option to file payroll tax online will also become available in the first quarter. The Tax Commissioner expects that once these options are put in place, taxpayers will move to e-filing in droves.

"The system is easy to use and very convenient to do from the comfort of a taxpayer's office or home or from overseas. No more driving into town, standing in line to pay, mailing returns, or waiting for a receipt in the mail. Taxpayers are able to print a copy of their filed returns and get immediate confirmation of payment. We also offer telephone support to taxpayers who require assistance or we will go directly to the taxpayer's place of business, if necessary," she said.

Taxpayers have also made requests to be able to pay Social Insurance contributions online. These enquiries have been forwarded to the Department of Social Insurance.