This week's opinion

The confirmation that the higher rate threshold for Scottish taxpayers will be frozen at £43 000 for 2017-18 while it will rise to £45 000 for other UK taxpayers is an important development.

When early in my career I started learning about state taxes in the US and cantonal taxes in Switzerland I felt quite smug that in the UK we did not face such difficulties. How times change. We have already had to get used to Scottish land and buildings transaction tax and may soon have to understand the implications of a lower corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland. I suspect that the next generation of tax advisers will have to familiarise themselves with a greater diversity in rates allowances and even incidence of tax within the constituent parts of the UK. We may have to deal with different rates for cities or regions within...