‘Scots staff may quit to pay less tax in England’
ONE business owner from Edinburgh is particularly worried about the widening tax gap between England and Scotland.
His company employs staff based both south of the Border, in Newcastle, and in the Scottish capital.
Keith Steele, 64, is the CEO of computer software company IOTech Systems which has more than 30 employees in Edinburgh and relies heavily on the talent of its workforce.
He said: ‘Just from a business perspective this now really could be quite a challenge for us to retain staff.
‘If people can take home more pay and also pay less on stamp duty in England, then suddenly working for us in Edinburgh becomes much less attractive.
‘For us, attracting new talent is also really key but this of course becomes harder if people are going to be able to earn a lot more in England.’
He added: ‘If the Scottish Government follow suit and lowers taxes themselves then it will probably be okay.
‘But if they don’t, then it will become very difficult to retain our staff and also hire new people because they will start looking at other opportunities elsewhere in the UK.’
Talking about his own pay, Mr Steele said: ‘Mine will be impacted quite substantially as I’m based in Scotland. And the amount of tax people pay today here really does make things so much worse, and people want to see this change, especially with everything happening with the cost of living right now.
‘I’m sure many businesses and people in England are feeling quite relieved now, but we’ve not got any of that in Scotland yet.’