Scottish Aggregates Tax - administration regulations: business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 4: Next steps and implementation

Implementation and delivery plan

Revenue Scotland has established a programme to deliver the systems, resource, guidance and other requirements to bring SAT into force. This programme is working within schedule and includes an extensive stakeholder engagement plan in order to ensure that those who are required to interact with Revenue Scotland in relation to SAT will be well informed about their required obligations.

The secondary legislation will ensure that Revenue Scotland has the power (but is not subject to any duty) to operate the register for SAT and can undertake voluntary registration of taxpayers from 1 December 2025, in advance of SAT coming into operation on 1 April 2026.

Post-implementation review

The Scottish Government will work with Revenue Scotland to monitor the effectiveness of these regulations. The Scottish Government’s Framework for Tax principles inform our approach to decision making, engagement and how we manage and sequence tax policy and delivery. Following the introduction of SAT, the Scottish Government will continue to take full account of the Framework’s principles and objectives, which includes evaluation. The Scottish Government established an advisory group which has provided expertise to inform the development of SAT legislation, and continues to provided expertise on preparation for the implementation of SAT. Continued engagement using the expert advisory group will be used to review the operation of SAT on an ongoing basis after the tax is introduced.

Recommendation

After careful consideration, the Scottish Government recommends the adoption of option 2, which is to introduce secondary legislation that aligns with the RSTPA 2014 and also broadly retains the fundamental structure of UKAL.

We recommend this option on the basis that it will reduce the uncertainty for current and future taxpayers and their customers and make the transition between UKAL and SAT as smooth as possible for the businesses affected.

This option also reflects feedback from stakeholder engagement through the SAT expert advisory group, and meetings with aggregate firm representatives. In addition, parliamentary scrutiny of the Act also indicated that stakeholders broadly favour the Scottish Government aligning with the UKAL.

Declaration

I have read the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment and I am satisfied that, given the available evidence, it represents a reasonable view of the likely costs, benefits and impact of the leading options. I am satisfied that business impact has been assessed with the support of businesses in Scotland.

I am also satisfied that officials have considered, as far as is possible at this time, the impact on consumers as required by the Consumer Scotland Act 2020 in completion of the Consumer Duty section of this BRIA.

Signed:

Date:

Minister's name: Ivan McKee

Minister's title: Minister for Public Finance

Scottish Government Contact point: Cara Woods (Cara.Woods@gov.scot)