Holyrood approves bill for air departure tax

The Scottish parliament voted to approve the Air Departure Tax (Scotland) Bill on 20 June.

The bill sets the structure of the new tax and how it will be collected and managed by Revenue Scotland. Detail of tax bands and tax rates will be set out in secondary legislation in the autumn as part of Holyrood’s budget process and alongside other devolved taxes.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay said the establishment of air departure tax showed the government was ‘ready to begin using Scotland’s new powers once they are devolved to the Scottish parliament’.

Moira Kelly chair of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s Scottish technical committee said: ‘This vote marks another important milestone in Scotland’s tax devolution journey creating the framework that will enable air departure tax to be wholly administered and collected north of the border.

‘However we remain none the wiser as to how the Scottish...