In a joint report Building a Better Tax System, the CIOT and ICAS call on Scotland’s political parties to improve public awareness of devolved taxation in the next Scottish Parliament, as a recent poll shows that a third of Scottish taxpayers are unaware that the Scottish Parliament has made changes to the tax system.
The CIOT and ICAS would like the following steps to be introduced in the next Scottish Parliament to help raise awareness:
strengthened parliamentary scrutiny of tax by introducing a Scottish equivalent of the Westminster Finance Bill to make changes to the tax system easier and more visible, and removing the constitution remit from the Finance Committee to enable it to spend more time scrutinising tax policy;
better budget coordination between the Scottish and UK governments to overcome recent budget delays that the organisations say have ‘cut across the devolution settlement;
limited use of Holyrood’s tax powers as a source of ‘last minute budget concessions’ and moving towards the development of a longer-term approach to tax policy development that considers existing tax powers alongside any future proposals for new taxes; and
improved public awareness and understanding of the Scottish tax regime through better visibility of tax in the Scottish political calendar and promoting tax education within the Scottish education curriculum.
The Building a better tax system report and an overview of the poll results are both available for download from the CIOT.
In a joint report Building a Better Tax System, the CIOT and ICAS call on Scotland’s political parties to improve public awareness of devolved taxation in the next Scottish Parliament, as a recent poll shows that a third of Scottish taxpayers are unaware that the Scottish Parliament has made changes to the tax system.
The CIOT and ICAS would like the following steps to be introduced in the next Scottish Parliament to help raise awareness:
strengthened parliamentary scrutiny of tax by introducing a Scottish equivalent of the Westminster Finance Bill to make changes to the tax system easier and more visible, and removing the constitution remit from the Finance Committee to enable it to spend more time scrutinising tax policy;
better budget coordination between the Scottish and UK governments to overcome recent budget delays that the organisations say have ‘cut across the devolution settlement;
limited use of Holyrood’s tax powers as a source of ‘last minute budget concessions’ and moving towards the development of a longer-term approach to tax policy development that considers existing tax powers alongside any future proposals for new taxes; and
improved public awareness and understanding of the Scottish tax regime through better visibility of tax in the Scottish political calendar and promoting tax education within the Scottish education curriculum.
The Building a better tax system report and an overview of the poll results are both available for download from the CIOT.
