Scottish income taxpayer calculation for financial year 2023-24: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for any information held by the Scottish Government which demonstrates that the 2023-24. Scottish Income Tax Outturn Statistics are incorrect & If the Scottish Government holds no such information, you have requested confirmation if the Scottish Government believe the below claim to be true or false.

“More than half of taxpayers in Scotland would pay less income tax in 2023-24 than if they lived elsewhere in the UK.”

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government is not responsible for the statistics referenced in your request. The Scottish Income Tax Outturn is an official statistic published by HMRC.

At each Budget, we continue to set the Starter and Basic rate bands at such a level that more than half of taxpayers are expected to pay less in the year ahead than they would elsewhere in the UK. Whilst it may be inevitable that earnings growth is sometimes different from what is suggested by the bestavailable information at the time, setting policy based on official independent forecasts from the Scottish Fiscal is the correct approach to take.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.