{"id":492797,"date":"2025-10-12T05:26:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/492797\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T05:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:26:22","slug":"how-can-scotland-tax-wealth-experts-and-campaigners-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/492797\/","title":{"rendered":"How can Scotland tax wealth? Experts and campaigners weigh in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A report prepared by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) for campaign group Tax Justice Scotland last week showed that a tax of 2% levied against those with assets worth \u00a310 million or more could bring in \u00a3492m a year<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n The research found that enough money could be generated from just the top 10 richest families in Scotland to lift 30,000 children out of poverty if this tax was implemented.\n<\/p>\n

\n While campaigners are keen to see the UK Government<\/a> bring in this wealth tax across the UK, Jamie Livingstone \u2013 head of Oxfam Scotland and a member of Tax Justice Scotland \u2013 claims Scots cannot simply wait for this to happen, and the Scottish Government must use its powers to tax property wealth and some of the \u201cdamaging behaviours\u201d of the rich. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Economist Emma Congreve, from Strathclyde University\u2019s Fraser of Allander Institute, added that overhauling the Council Tax system<\/a> is the most obvious way of taxing wealth in Scotland, while the revaluation of properties to pave the way for a new approach is \u201curgent\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

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\n She said it was \u201cstrange\u201d that the system has not been reformed given its regressive set-up is \u201cat odds\u201d with a fairer approach to income tax in the country<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Council Tax has long been regarded as unfair because of outdated property valuations<\/a> that have not been updated since 1991 in England and Scotland, but a full revaluation has never been carried out.\n<\/p>\n

\n Livingstone told the Sunday National: \u201cThe UK Government needs to get on and improve the quality of wealth taxes either by increasing and improving existing wealth taxes or by considering a new wealth tax which is hugely popular, not just among the public, but increasingly among wealthy people themselves.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201c[But] we can\u2019t simply wait and hope the UK Government will increase [taxes], we need to get on and use the tax powers that are available in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cTo be fair to the Scottish Government, it has made the income tax system fairer, but if we\u2019re wanting to shift the focus to better taxing wealth, the main lever in Scotland to achieve that is improving the taxation of property wealth, and that takes you firmly to the Council Tax.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCouncil Tax reform is long overdue. There\u2019s been broad consensus, but there\u2019s just been political stasis in driving that change.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cEveryone acknowledges it\u2019s ludicrous, but it will take political leadership to fix it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Livingstone said he wants to see every political party in Scotland lay out its commitment to launching a revaluation and \u201cgoing through the hard yards\u201d to design a fairer system going forward.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n

\n Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said a revaluation of properties is \u201cabsolutely needed\u201d earlier this year, but the Scottish Government has not committed to carrying one out.\n<\/p>\n

\n The banding proportions were changed in 2017 by the Scottish Government, with charges increased for bands E to H. However, as the entire system is based on outdated valuations, this move has long been viewed by experts as inadequate.\n<\/p>\n

\n Congreve said given the Scottish Government had taken the risk of overhauling income tax, it is odd the Council Tax system has only been tinkered with.\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked whether the Council Tax was the best way to tax wealth in Scotland, she said: \u201cFor anyone in Scotland interested in wealth taxation, Council Tax is absolutely the first place to start. Land is the next obvious place to go.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Congreve said there was no technical issue standing in the Scottish Government\u2019s way in terms of revaluation, but there has been a \u201clack of political will\u201d to commit to the process.\n<\/p>\n

\n She went on: \u201cIt\u2019s very odd [Council Tax has not been reformed]. It seems there\u2019s a bit of a difference between when new powers come in, so the new income tax powers for example, the Government has done something with those, but the existing taxes they had [at the start of devolution] \u2013 so Council Tax and non-domestic rates \u2013 they haven\u2019t put in reforms to any great extent.\n<\/p>\n

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\n \u201cIt’s not an easy decision for politicians to make, but they [the Scottish Government] did raise income tax and they were prepared to take that risk then, so it\u2019s interesting with things like Council Tax, they talk much more about how there needs to be a consensus.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a strange position they are holding on [Council] Tax and it\u2019s unclear exactly why that is.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Congreve said the Scottish Government could also look at changes to the \u201cvery bad\u201d Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) \u2013 a levy that is applied when buying a new home \u2013 as part of Council Tax reforms.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cEssentially, you could just pay a recurring property tax on the value of your home and not face another tax when you buy a new home,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere are worries that LBTT acts as a barrier to people buying and selling a home and that\u2019s not a good thing if a tax changes behaviour like that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Livingstone is also keen to see the Scottish Government enact the Air Departure Tax \u2013 Scotland\u2019s replacement for Air Passenger Duty \u2013 which was legislated for eight years ago but is still not in force.\n<\/p>\n

\n Oxfam says there were more than 12,000 private flights in and out of Scottish airports in 2024 and that if an Air Departure Tax had been in place, and applied at the highest possible rate, that would have generated an extra \u00a329m in tax revenue.\n<\/p>\n

\n Concerns around exemptions for airports in the Highlands and Islands<\/a> have so far stopped ministers from enacting the legislation.\n<\/p>\n

\n On top of this, Livingstone said it is vital that a private jet tax is introduced by the Scottish Government as part of targeting behaviours of the wealthy that damage the climate.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been calling for air departure tax to be operationalised and, more than that, not just to introduce a new tax in Scotland and replicate the same banding and rates that exist within air passenger duty, but to introduce a specific new private jet tax within that.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe know those jets cause hugely disproportionate climate emissions and yet, the Scottish Government says it is supportive of the \u2018polluter pays\u2019 principle, but it’s sitting on its hands and not operationalising the air departure tax.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re missing out on revenues of up to \u00a330m a year by our count, and we\u2019re also effectively not tackling one of the most egregious examples of climate damage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A Scottish Government spokesperson said: \u201cAny changes to council tax must be informed by robust evidence and wide public consultation \u2013 at present a consensus doesn\u2019t exist on how to reform council tax. Our joint programme of engagement with COSLA on options for reform is intended to inform that public debate.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Scottish Government continues to explore all options for implementing Air Departure Tax in a way that protects Highlands and Islands connectivity while complying with subsidy control principles. Rates and bands \u2013 including those for private jets \u2013 will be set once this has been resolved and prior to implementation of the tax.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A report prepared by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) for campaign group Tax Justice Scotland last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-492797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115359539698771149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}