New tax powers

Legislation which will give the Scottish Parliament further powers over income tax will be laid today.

The regulations will mean from 2017/18 the Scottish Parliament will be able to set the rates and bands thresholds for income tax, excluding personal allowance.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said:

“We welcome these legislative steps which will increase the Scottish Parliament’s powers over income tax from next year. The new powers will allow us to design an approach to taxation which will suit Scotland’s needs, balancing the need to invest with the recognition that many households are facing difficult economic challenges.

“As we set out earlier this year, our income tax proposals for 2017/18 will aim to protect lower income taxpayers and generate extra revenue for us to invest in public services. 

“We will set out further details of our proposals for income tax in next month’s Draft Budget.”

Background

The Fiscal Framework to support the Scotland Bill was agreed by the UK and Scottish Governments on 25 February 2016. This confirms that these new income tax powers will commence in 2017. The full agreement can be found at http://www.gov.scot/fiscalframework