SNP’S Mackay has ‘bottled it’ when it comes to addressing Tory austerity policies

When it came to make a decision whether or not to divert from Tory austerity policies and increase the top rate of tax for those with incomes above £150,000, SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay seems to have bottled it. He has given in to the scare stories that increasing the top rate of tax will reduce the government’s tax income. No wonder the rich get richer and everyone else has to pay more for the services they need.

At the height of the financial crash, Labour chancellor Alastair Darling, in his 2009 budget, decided to increase the top rate of tax to 50 per cent. But he made the fatal error of saying that the increase would only apply from 2010. Some of those affected by the rise brought forward their income the year before the tax rise came into force; according to HMRC figures, up to £18 billion of income was brought forward in this way. No conclusions could be drawn about the revenue collected in the first year of the tax because the means to get around the new rate could not be used again.

Despite that, and in defiance of popular opinion, in March 2012 George Osborne reduced the top rate to 45 per cent, saying that the increase to 50 per cent had produced little extra revenue, totally ignoring the fact that higher rate taxpayers had been given 12 months to reorganise their finances, and many did so with alacrity. A confidential study that had previously been brought to his attention said that top earners using aggressive avoidance schemes were bringing their income tax rates down to just 10 per cent.

It is about time the SNP grasped the nettle and increased the top rate to 50 per cent. The idea that people will incur the enormous cost of moving house and changing jobs just to save a bit of tax is a fallacy. For a supposed socialist party, their budget, instead of soaking the rich, drenches middle earners instead, and leaves hard-pressed Scottish workers to pick up the cost of maintaining the NHS, educating our children, and providing all the other services necessary for a good life. PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh

The proposed budget tax “cuts” for those under £26,000 income (compared with the rest of UK) cannot be about making a serious difference to the lower paid. It is a cheap way of allowing the SNP to say that “for the majority, Scotland is the lowest-taxed part of the UK”. The numbers are: 1.375 million workers get a tax cut ranging between 1p a year and £20 a year. The average cut will be very close to £18 (a year) and so the average tax cut per worker is just 4.93p a day – not even 5p a day. The media are reporting that this will “lift the gloom” for the lower paid. In fact, the tax cut part is going to cost only £25m and eats into the amount taken from the higher earners by only about one seventh, still leaving the SNP government with most of the gain, but the mathematically correct but cynical ability to counter claims that we are the highest-taxed part of the UK. If the tax giveaway was just a fiver you could still say it! And it’s not much more than that as the starter (19p) band is relatively narrow.

Cynical, cheap and misleading. In a way, the lower paid have been used, and the higher paid will be frustrated that the headlines may not necessarily be about their additional contribution to public services. JONATHAN DAVIDSON Galashiels Road , Stow

When Labour councillors (Scott Arthur, Letters, 18 December) think it’s disgraceful someone earning £50,000 a year will be £85 better off under the SNP budget and there is mass hysteria from the Tory press claiming those earning over £33,000 are being squeezed into poverty you know Derek Mackay’s progressive but balanced budget has wrongfooted them.

Despite the Scottish Government facing a £200 million revenue cut from westminster next year and having very limited fiscal powers, it is generating £164m extra for Scotland’s NHS while giving local government a fair settlement with an extra £93m plus an additional £120m for headteachers to raise attainment in schools. Despite Labour’s complaints about cuts, eight “progressive” Labour-run councils didn’t take the opportunity to raise council tax in their local areas.

Even the CBI conceded that the SNP has put productivity at the heart of the budget due to the increased investment in research and development and £340m to provide capital for the Scottish National Investment Bank. As a Unionist, Scott Arthur obviously resents the Scottish government’s “jaunts overseas” to boost international trade and our exports.

The very low growth forecast for the UK and Scotland is a worry that is compounded by Brexit and London’s control of our economy. This week ireland’s GDP forecast has been upgraded from 3.2 per cent to 4.8 per cent this year and to 3.8 per cent from 3.1 per cent for 2018. Just imagine the opportunities that would be available to another similar-sized independent neighbour post uk Brexit. MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh