Scottish Tax Rate Increases

Scottish Tax Hikes.

You may remember that Scotland now has control of income tax for residents of Scotland.

It can set income tax rates and it can set income tax bands but the Scottish Government cannot set personal allowances, social security, savings and dividend tax allowances nor capital gains tax rates and allowances.

In the last Scottish Budget, Scotland decided to keep the higher rate tax threshold at £43,000 rather than increase it to £45,000 along with the rest of the UK.

The latest Scottish Government consultation paper on taxes has suggested that Scotland may introduce different rates of income tax to the rest of the UK.  Whilst the rest of the UK has 20%, 40% and 45% could Scottish residents be looking at an extra 1 or 2% higher rates on top?  In fact, one suggestion was to have the highest rate of income tax at 60%.

Interesting times.