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Publication - Research and analysis

Scottish Budget 2024 to 2025: attitudes to tax - public engagement

Published
19 December 2023
From
Director of Tax and Revenues
Directorate
Tax and Revenues Directorate
Part of
Money and tax, Scottish Budget
ISBN
9781835218136

This document summarises the Scottish Government's engagement on public attitudes to tax.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Public Attitudes to Tax – 2023

The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS) includes two questions on tax covering attitudes towards the level of tax and spending, and attitudes towards the redistribution of income. The latest dataset will be available in early 2024.

Since Autumn 2020, Scottish Government has included questions in a YouGov omnibus survey to gather data on public attitudes to paying tax and knowledge of the tax system.

In 2020 and 2021, figures 3 and 4 asked about Covid-19 spending. As such, these figures are not included below but you can find them here.

The questions are focused on the following areas:

  • Attitudes to levels of tax and spending.
  • Views on personal tax levels.
  • Knowledge of the Scottish and UK tax systems.

Key Findings from 2023 data[1]

  • 54% of respondents felt they understood the UK tax system and the UK taxes paid. This compares to 40% of respondents who felt they understood tax devolution in Scotland and the devolved taxes they paid. This is broadly in line with the last three years.
  • Over half of the respondents (57%) agreed that government should redistribute income from the better off to those are less well off.
  • 45% of respondents felt the amount of tax they paid was about right, with 36% feeling it was too high.
  • 43% of respondents would be prepared to pay more taxes in order to fund public services. Of these respondents, 58% would be prepared to pay more in income tax and 37% would be prepared to pay more green/environmental taxes.
  • Just 9% of people think the government should reduce taxes and spend less on health, education and social benefits.
  • As with previous years, most people find information about tax from the UK Government website (27%), followed by the Scottish Government website (11%) and friends and family (10%).
Figure 1. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'Government should redistribute income from the better-off to those who are less well off.'
YouGov 2020 YouGov 2021 YouGov 2022 YouGov 2023
Agree Strongly 26% 26% 34% 27%
Agree Strongly 32% 33% 33% 30%
TOTAL AGREE 58% 59% 67% 57%
Neither 26% 27% 22% 26%
Disagree 12% 11% 8% 12%
Disagree Strongly 5% 5% 2% 5%
TOTAL DISAGREE 17% 16% 10% 17%
Figure 2. Suppose the government had to choose between the three options on this card. Which do you think it should choose?
YouGov 2020 YouGov 2021 YouGov 2022 YouGov 2023
Reduce taxes and spend less on health, education and social benefits 6% 7% 8% 9%
Keep taxes and spending on these services at the same level as now 46% 48% 40% 42%
Increase taxes and spend more on health, education and social benefits 48% 46% 53% 49%
Figure 3. Which of these statements do you agree with the most in relation to future levels of tax and public spending?
YouGov 2022 YouGov 2023
I am prepared to pay more taxes myself in order to fund public services 47% 43%
I am prepared for some cuts to public services rather than pay more taxes myself 18% 19%
Neither 21% 23%
Don't know 14% 15%
Figure 4. In which of the following areas would you be prepared to pay more tax in? Please tick all that apply. (Only shown to those who said they would be prepared to pay more taxes to fund public services)
YouGov 2022 (n=509) YouGov 2023 (n=502)
Income taxes 68% 58%
Green/environmental taxes 36% 37%
Local taxes (e.g. Council Tax) 33% 33%
Consumption taxes (e.g. VAT) 29% 27%
Other taxes [see Tab2] 4% 4%
Don’t know 11% 9%
Figure 5. On balance, would you say that the amount of tax that you and your family have to pay is too high, too low or about right?
YouGov 2021 YouGov 2022 YouGov 2023
Too high 28% 30% 36%
About right 52% 47% 45%
Too low 3% 5% 3%
Don't know 17% 9% 16%
Figure 6. How well, if at all, do you feel you understand the UK tax system and the UK taxes you pay? And how well, if at all, do you feel you understand tax devolution in Scotland and the devolved taxes you pay?
Scotland (YouGov) UK (YouGov)
2020 2021 2022 2023 2020 2021 2022 2023
Understand them very well 7% 7% 9% 7% 9% 10% 11% 8%
Understand them fairly well 37% 32% 36% 33% 50% 42% 48% 46%
TOTAL UNDERSTAND 44% 39% 45% 40% 59% 52% 59% 54%
Do not understand them that well 33% 35% 29% 34% 26% 31% 27% 30%
Do not understand them at all 17% 18% 19% 20% 10% 10% 10% 11%
TOTAL DO NOT UNDERSTAND 50% 53% 48% 54% 36% 41% 37% 41%
Don’t know 6% 8% 7% 7% 5% 7% 5% 4%
Figure 7. Which one, if any, of the following is how you find most of your information on tax?
YouGov 2021 YouGov 2022 YouGov 2023
UK Government website 22% 25% 27%
Scottish Government website 11% 13% 11%
Friends and family 7% 7% 10%
My employer 5% 5% 7%
Independent websites 6% 6% 6%
Mainstream media (newspapers, TV and radio) 10% 11% 6%
Independent tax professional organisations 3% 2% 3%
Social media 2% 2% 1%
Other 2% 3% 2%
Don't know 6% 7% 5%
Not applicable - I don't find information on tax 26% 18% 22%

Contact

Email: taxdivisionengagement@gov.scot

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