Sturgeon: It takes real guts to hike middle class tax!

HARD-WORKING families faced a further attack on their finances yesterday as Nicola Sturgeon launched a robust defence of Scotland’s new ‘progressive’ rates of income tax.

From next week, a million Scots will pay the highest income tax in the UK, with anyone earning more than £26,000 paying more than if they lived south of the Border.

Addressing the SNP’s national council yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said only her party had the ‘guts’ to make middle and higher earners pay more.

She said: ‘The decisions we have taken will mean that for the majority of taxpayers, Scotland will be the lowesttaxed part of the UK this year. And we have asked those with the most money to contribute a bit more.

‘We are the first party in most of my lifetime to have the guts in government to make income tax more progressive and raise more money from it to protect what we hold dear.’

But analysis of SNP tax changes shows the extra £1.2 billion the Scottish Government hopes to raise will come mainly from the ‘squeezed middle’. According to a recent report from the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC), the Government’s official tax forecaster, people earning between £24,000 and £43,430 are set to pay an extra £140 million next year, rising to £168 million in 2022-23.

That compares to top earners on £150,000 a year or more who will contribute just £27 million next year, rising to £35 million in 2022-23.

But the SFC report also looks at how taxpayers could use tactics such as tax avoidance, a change of job or hours worked, or even leaving Scotland to minimise their bill, and concludes such tactics could cut the extra revenue from top earners to £3 million a year.

Yet the report suggests this would make little difference to the amount due from people earning between £24,000 and £43,430, who would still pay the lion’s share.

Meanwhile, the Tories say that although Scottish taxpayers will have to pay more, they are not seeing any benefit. Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘Economic growth has been pathetic compared to the rest of the UK, and to make matters worse the SNP have raised taxes on hardworking Scots.

‘Everyone earning over £26,000 is now paying more tax than south of the Border, yet we’ve seen no improvement in public services.

‘With NHS waiting time targets being consistently missed and Police Scotland lurching from crisis to crisis, Nicola Sturgeon is fooling no one.’

‘Sturgeon is fooling no one’