The Scotland Bill - Thoughts?

[Scottish Business Owner]

I'm sure many will ahve seen coverage last week of the new Scotland Bill introduced by the coalition government. I've linked below to an article on the Herald regarding this.

Scotland finds its feet: Is this first step to independence? - Herald Scotland | Comment | Iain Macwhirter

Lots and lots have been written about it over the past few weeks but one of the most interesting things i've seen is a report from The Chartered Institute of Taxation about the technical issues surrounding the bill. Link below

http://www.tax.org.uk/media_centre/...+experts+highlight+important+technical+issues

I wondered what other people think about this bill. My position on it is that I probably do support more fiscal autonomy for Scotland but I think it is a valid question to ask as to whether this bill goes far enough.

I know this is a very involved subject but i'd loved to hear your views as I think this is actually very important both for small businesses and as people who live in Scotland

 

[Mike Lewis]

My personall view is that Calman doesn't go far enough.

This is not a question of politics or nationalism. It justs seem a clumsy and illogical way to split taxation between the two governments - not to mention inefficient.

I think we should be working towards either:

(i) A system where each government imposes its own taxes for its own purposes. The Scottish government would be totally free to decide the form of taxation, the rates, and the methods of collection - and would be totally accountable to the Scottish people for those decisions; ditto with the UK government; or

(ii) The Scottish government raises 100 percent of taxes in Scotland, and pays a precept to the UK government to cover the items that the UK is responsible for, such as defence.

Option (i) is similar to the system that seems to work well in the USA. Option (ii) is more like the system of two-tier local government that has existed here at one time or another.

No doubt there are many objections to the above. But they do seem more logical to me.

Mike

 

[Eagle]

(ii) The Scottish government raises 100 percent of taxes in Scotland, and pays a precept to the UK government to cover the items that the UK is responsible for, such as defence.

I'm all for that.

 

[Adventurelife]

It is a mess and will cost a fortune to admin and they will get lots of it wrong which will cost more to fix. A mess from start to finish.

There is only two options to my mind.

1. Full independence
2. Complete fiscal independence with a contribution to the UK for defence. However that makes the assumption that Scotland will agree with UK foreign policy!

Everything else is just a mess that costs both Scotland and England and the only people who benefit are the the political class and their administrators. The rest of us just get to pay for the joy of watching the mess unfold.

 

[Eagle]

The whole devolution thing is utterly mental.