Tax quibble

What a sad reflection on our society that people quibble over a tiny tax differential between Scotland and England (‘Derek Mackay’s Robin Hood budget could bring him an arrow in the back’, Letters, December 14).

For someone on the border of the 40 per cent tax threshold all this means is that, within a narrow band, for every £1,000 a year your salary goes up, instead of receiving an extra £800 post tax you receive £600 (leaving aside national insurance) and in return we and our fellow citizens have free prescriptions, no £9,000-a-year university tuition fees and all the rest.

Scotland is far from perfect but if someone on a pre-tax salary of around £900 a week wants to flee the country for the sake of £4 a week then its a case of “Here’s yer coat, whit’s yer hurry?”

BRIAN DEMPSEY

Lecturer in Law, University of

Dundee