by James Aitken
on April 8, 2015
in Private Client, Property, Tax
Just a few of the tax, revenue and legal changes a large group of SNP MPs could make happen
- Reform of income tax rates and bands. One option would be to create 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% income tax rates and bands. This would ensure a more progressive system of income tax and in particular removes the large gap between the 20% and 40% income tax rate and band. There was a similar issue with Stamp Duty Land Tax until the recent reforms by both Westminster and Holyrood.
- Devolve control of the approval of charitable tax status to Revenue Scotland and OSCR. A Scottish charity should not have to deal with both OSCR and HMRC when OSCR could easily deal with these tax matters. Revenue Scotland have already done something similar with the two new Scottish taxes. Registers Scotland are involved with the collection of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and SEPA is involved the collection of the Scottish Landfill Tax.
- Reduce the rate of VAT charged on home repairs and improvements to 5%. HM Treasury already allows this in the Isle of Man.
- Allow Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to recover VAT. This is another example of Scottish institutions being penalised by the UK Government when they wish to do things differently. A previous example was the withholding of Attendance Allowance funding when the Scottish Parliament introduced Free Personal and Nursing Care.
- Ensure that UK institutions must take Scots law and practice into consideration when dealing with international matters. For example the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. This directly impacts on our Adults with Incapacity legislation.
- Devolve control of stamp duty on shares to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government could then abolish stamp duty charged on the sale of shares of Scottish registered companies.
- Devolve control, complete control, of the Crown Estate, air passenger duty and aggregates levy by the end of 2015. Control of income tax should also be devolved completely. The new ‘shared’ income tax gives the Scottish Parliament almost no worthwhile control over income tax. All funds from fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties imposed by our courts and tribunals as well as sums recovered under the Proceeds of Crime legislation should also remain in Scotland.
- Devolve control of inheritance tax to the Scottish Parliament. It makes no sense for succession law to be controlled by the Scottish Parliament but not the main succession tax. This would also ensure that the reform of Scottish succession law can be done in a joined up manner. Another reason to do this is tax simplification both in Scotland and the rest of the UK. The applicable forms and guidance would no longer need to include explanations of the Scottish and the rest of the UKs laws of succession. This argument can just as easily be made with a number of transport and environmental taxes.
- The Scottish GAAR (General AntI-Avoidance Rule) which goes further than its UK counterpart as it targets artificial, not merely abusive schemes, should be made to apply throughout the UK.
- Devolve control of the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings to the Scottish Parliament so that the Scottish Parliament can abolish it. It is not likely to be needed in Scotland now that we have a Scottish Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. If the underlying issue were to become a problem in Scotland we can easily create our own anti-avoidance provision.
