Scottish Income tax

[thinfourth]

And the results

If you do the anti scottish thing of having a decent job earning over £45K

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... glish.html

Cough up an extra £800 a year

I don't think Scotland will have a good future under the SNP

[David]

Certainly, if there's a a climate of pursuing those that already contribute the most, Scotland will see a migration of the 'better' paid, to the tax haven of England (at least for tax purposes). If it was a across all tax bands then I suspect there would be greater willingness for the wealthier to do 'their bit' for the greater good. There's a make or break period on the way for the SNP, and that's for the good - we've had too long a period without accountability.

[thinfourth]

The thing that peaks my interest is

Are they intending to drive the wealthy out of scotland or is it just pure incompetence


A wise view point is never see malice where sheer stupidity would give the same result

[j2 lot]

Stayed the same in Moray, does each County set its own?

Private water and sewage, we do not even get a dust bin collection, but we still have to pay it.

tut

It was frozen for the current year Tut. The increase is from April 17 with the top 4 bands increasing from between £100 to £500 which is enforced by Hollyrood plus they have permitted local authorities to increase their local rate by up to a further 3%

[Corranga]

Council tax wise, I presume we are talking about this proposal...
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Resea ... reform.pdf

[rossybee]

Council tax wise, I presume we are talking about this proposal...
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Resea ... reform.pdf

The very one - as previously mention, and extra £545 for me

[j2 lot]

That's it - the SNP replacement for the Council Tax as Council Tax is outdated and based on historical information. ........

[neil]

Last time I checked it's Labour who want to do away with Council Tax, the SNP will keep the name but put it up - http://stv.tv/news/politics/1347427-cou ... tax-plans/ Either way it could get expensive.

[j2 lot]

Last time I checked it's Labour who want to do away with Council Tax, the SNP will keep the name but put it up - http://stv.tv/news/politics/1347427-cou ... tax-plans/ Either way it could get expensive.

Quote from article below:
In 2007, the SNP promised to scrap council tax, but Ms Sturgeon insisted the latest reform plans were “fair and progressive”. She waved aside suggestions that it was unfair to continue to base council tax payments on what properties were worth in 1991.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fd6c39ba-e06b ... z43koCs65n

[robin]

It actually doesn't matter much what year you use as the baseline for valuations. It's the relative values that count and they don't move by much. More expensive houses pay more tax than less expensive ones, regardless of the absolute values.

That FT link doesn't work unless you sign in (I don't have an account) so cannot read it.

I think the truth is that both Labour and the SNP have at some point said they will scrap the council tax. Labour's proposal is to pay 450 per household plus 0.35% of the value up to 180K. So for a 180K house you'll be paying ~1K/year. For houses above 180K you'll pay 0.9% on the value above 180K. So for a £1million house that's 9K/year (vs approximately 3,500 in Edinburgh under council tax rules). Labour claim that 80% are below the 180K number (not sure that's going to be true locally, but across all of Scotland it could easily be true). Of course irrelevant as Labour won't win the next election in Scotland so this will never happen. Note that properties above 180K are almost all in band H.

The SNP's version is a little less punishing on the band H payers ... instead it spreads the load across the bands E,F,G,H with band H paying relatively more than they used to, but still not an amount that is proportional to property valuation.

My instinct is that property value is not a good metric to use for raising local taxes (if you want the tax to be seen as fair) - income (and similar) tax is much more sensible as it more accurately tracks people's ability to pay.

Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

Robin for First Minister.

[tut]

"- income (and similar) tax is much more sensible as it more accurately tracks people's ability to pay."

Absolutely agree with that Robin, zero Council Tax sounds great, will pay for lots of Track Days.

tut

[tut]

I wonder if Sturgeon has been challenged with this yet.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016 ... greater-uk

tut

[Rosssco]

I wonder if Sturgeon has been challenged with this yet.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016 ... greater-uk

tut

Numbers don't matter - the Scottish 'onshore' economy is fundamentally solid, irrespective that its completely insufficient to fund spending commitments.

[PhilA]

Happy Union Day peeps!

To anyone who likes the SNP. I respect u for seeing something I dont.

So I work hard, with my brothers and sisters in the UK - and suddenly i dont benefit from the rate limit changing. Royally pissed off with SNP - anti austerity ballocks party.
If they get another landslide victory this May, I am seriously considering moving out.