Air Departure Tax Administration Regulations: business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 4: Additional Enforcement and Compliance considerations

4.1 Business and Regulator Enforcement and compliance considerations

Revenue Scotland has statutory powers in relation to the collection and management of ADT. The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014 (RSTPA 2014) and secondary legislation made under that Act, set out the tax administration framework that underpins all devolved taxes in Scotland, along with the powers and duties of taxpayers and of Revenue Scotland. This includes the investigatory powers of Revenue Scotland, the process for issuing penalties in respect of non-compliant behaviour and the provisions for debt enforcement.

Revenue Scotland's compliance and enforcement powers for ADT are broadly in line with those used to administer existing self-assessed devolved taxes, such as Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, Scottish Landfill Tax and Scottish Aggregates Tax.

The Scottish Tax Tribunals are in place to hear appeals against appealable decisions made by Revenue Scotland related to the fully devolved taxes.

4.2 Commencement Considerations

Some of the amendments which the ADT Administration Regulations make to certain administrative provisions in the ADT Act will come into effect on 1 December 2026 to facilitate the voluntary registration of ADT taxpayers by Revenue Scotland from 1 December 2026, in advance of ADT coming into operation on 1 April 2027. The Administration Regulations make other amendments to provisions of the 2017 Act which will be brought into effect on 1 April 2027, alongside ADT coming into operation.