SNP’s local income tax will send bills soaring
Salmond’s proposals are set to hit hard-working Scots families the hardest
HARD-WORKING families face being punished with a crippling hike in their bills under Alex Salmond’s plans for a ‘local income tax’ in a separate Scotland. New figures have revealed that two adults earning the average wage and living in a Band D property would have to pay an extra £550 a year under the replacement for council tax.
If a couple both earned £50,000 and lived in a Band E property in Edinburgh, their tax bill would be £2,900 higher.
Three nurses sharing a Band B flat in Glasgow would have to pay £1,300 more each year.
The findings are based on research by the Scottish Parliament Infor-
‘The sums simply
do not add up’
mation Centre (SPICe), requested by Labour amid a growing row over the proposals.
Earlier this month, when asked during a radio phone-in if he would reform council tax after i ndependence, Mr Salmond replied: ‘In the long term, I’d like to see us move to a local income tax because it’s based on the ability to pay.’
The SPICe research found that a 3p local income tax rate would have left a shortfall of more than £ 1 billion in 2012-13 when compared with the £2.3billion collected through council tax.
The independent experts therefore calculated that a figure of 5.4p in the pound would be needed.
Opponents of the SNP’s plan believe it would prove a disincentive to work by penalising families where two adults have j obs, whereas those living off benefits would not have to pay.
Scottish Labour local government spokesman Sarah Boyack said the figures showed that Nationalist ministers were either trying to keep secret the true cost of a local income tax ‘or they haven’t done their homework, which would show a staggering level of incompetence’.
She added: ‘ The SNP plans would see huge cuts to l ocal authorities, even further job losses and increased charges unless they doubled the tax from the original level they proposed.
‘This would impact on people from all walks of life, including nurses, teachers and police officers, at a time when their pay packets are already being stretched. The First Minister’s sums simply do not add up.’
Last night, a spokesman for Finance Secretary John Swinney said: ‘The Scottish Government wants to see a fairer local tax system, as under Labour the council tax increased by 60 per cent.’
THE No campaign is struggling because it is ‘run by grumpy old men’, a former UK Government minister has warned.
Baroness Shriti Vadera believes Scots will reject Mr Salmond’s independence bid – but said the contest is now closer than it should have been.
The Labour politician said Better Together must do more to appeal to undecided female voters. She told a Fortune magazine Most Powerful Women event in London yesterday: ‘There is no reason for us to lose this referendum, but it is true that the Better Together campaign is certainly testing that thesis to destruction. I think it’s because it’s run by grumpy old men and the really undecided voters are women.
‘I think we’ll win, but really it doesn’t have to be this close.’