‘Land tax impacts whole country’

A full evaluation of all the possible consequences – intended and unintended – of any potential land value tax should extend well beyond the benefits it could give to delivering land reform objectives.

Responding to a report published yesterday by the Scottish Land Commission, the landowners’ organisation, Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) claimed that the introduction of land value tax would have impacts across the country in both rural and urban areas.

SLE executive director, Sarah-jane Laing, said that although time was needed to scrutinise the details of the report on introducing a land tax in Scotland, the whole issue should be “considered in the round”, rather than looking at just one idea in isolation:

“Land value tax has been debated for many years but has not been taken forward by any administration because of the potential impact it may have on not just rural Scotland, but the whole of the country.”

And she said that the implications would go far beyond simply affecting those with large estates:

“It could have an impact on local communities’ aspirations and it would discourage those providing investment, from housing developers, to forestry businesses and farmers.”

She said that rural businesses were already subject to a well established and complex tax regime:

The Scottish Land Commission’s report said that a land value tax could help deliver Scotland’s land reform objectives and raise revenue in a more progressive way.

However the report also identified a number of practical issues which would need to be resolved before any new system was implemented including co-ordination with existing land and property taxes.