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Happy new year to all our readers.
For those in our community who deal with Scottish taxpayers part of the holiday will have been spent mulling over the implications of the Scottish Budget and the complexities of working with a system where there will be six different rates of income tax on earned income.
These latest changes have brought home just how different the structure of tax is between Scotland and the rest of the UK. People are starting to question whether we will see people moving out of Scotland to escape these higher tax rates. I suspect that this may just be talk, but the fact that the question is being raised shows that there has been a profound shift away from the world in which many of us grew up, where it was an article of faith that the same tax system applied throughout the UK.
Individual readers will have their own views on these issues and, of course, Taxation magazine takes no political stance – it is for the respective governments in a democratic society to take these decisions. But the fact that there are now such distinct differences should give us a pause for thought.
Our editorial team is based in England and it is perhaps inevitable that we tend to see matters through an English lens. We try hard to appreciate that things are different in Scotland but perhaps not as much as we should. So I would be interested to hear suggestions from readers who deal with Scottish taxpayers about what we can or should be doing in our pages to reflect the devolved nature of our tax system. And, of course, the views of those who don’t have to grapple with Scottish fiscal issues are equally welcome.
If you do one thing…
If you deal with corporate clients make sure you are up to date on the changes brought about by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (tinyurl.com/ecctactchanges).
