SNP scraps flat tax idea
Budget cut rules out flat rate income tax
The Scottish National Party has backed away from its proposal to levy a flat
rate local income tax to replace the current council tax charge.
The majority party’s cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth,
John Swinney, says the plans were scrapped because London had forced a £1bn cut
in the Scottish budget.
The SNP wants to replace the council tax – based on homes – with a local tax
on workers, set by councils, up to a limit of 3p in the pound.
But the plans drew strong opposition from business groups, which say that the
local income tax would be expensive to administer and would deter foreign
companies from investing in Scotland.