SNP’s basic rate taxpayer bombshell

The SNP's plans to rip Scotland out of Britain could mean a basic rate taxpayer paying almost half their earnings in tax. [see notes]

Annabel Goldie, Scottish Conservative Leader, said:

"Alex Salmond would turn Scotland into the highest taxed part of Britain.

"His dangerous plans to rip Scotland out of the UK would hammer hard working Scots, rip our country apart and decimate our economy.

"The Scottish Government's own figures show that separation means up to a 12p hike on income tax, pushing the basic rate to 32p.

"Added to the SNP's madcap plans to introduce a local income tax – which the report they tried to cover up said would be 4.6p – and then national insurance contributions on top of that, then it is clear the bill for divorce from the UK would cripple basic rate taxpayers in Scotland.

"The true cost of living in Alex Salmond's Scotland can now be exposed: ordinary Scots face paying nearly half their earnings in taxes.

"Scotland cannot afford the SNP. Labour has wobbled on an independence bill, the Lib Dems are wobbling on an independence bill, so only the Scottish Conservatives will protect Scotland from the excesses of this dangerous and costly nationalism."

1) The last Government and Expenditure Revenue Report (GERS) report from June 2010 pointed to a deficit of at least £3.8billion in a separate Scotland. Please see the fifth bullet point of the Executive Summary link

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/06/22160331/2

This deficit could put as much as 12p on income tax to plug the gap (http://tiny.cc/fgin9 see para 7) – meaning in this instance the basic rate of income tax would be 32p.

2) The report which the SNP spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money trying to keep hidden said the rate for the SNP's local income tax would be 4.6p

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/8435801/Alex-Salmonds-local-income-tax-plans-will-cost-families-fifty-per-cent-more.html

3) Then add national insurance contributions on top of that, which is 12p in the pound for a basic rate taxpayer

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/intro/basics.htm#4

4) So in an independent Scotland, a basic rate taxpayer could be paying 48.6p of every pound they earn in tax. A higher rate taxpayer would be paying 68.6p, more than two thirds of what they earn.

Back to all posts