Tax Changes That Could Benefit Scottish Drivers
Tuesday, 21. October 2014
Whilst the Scots finally decided to stick with the rest of the UK we are now left wandering at what cost? Like many things that the Tories have done since coming into power with the Lib Dems the whole thing was poorly thought through and panic took over at the thought of losing our good chums north of the border.
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Like most I’m pleased that we haven’t lost Scotland, at least we stand a chance at the next Olympics but what have we had to agree to behind closed doors? There was an expression that was bandied about as the whole of the UK Government joined forces to try to convince the Scots that we were ‘Better together’, if Scotland decided to stay in they would be given ‘tax raising powers and further fiscal devolution.’
I heard that said by all parties and even agreed to by Gordon Brown, not sure what authority he had to agree to that on behalf of the UK government but anyway, he did. The problem is that the expression is so glib it passed most of us by but like free tuition fees in Scotland but not in the rest of the UK what is this likely to mean?
Whilst many believed that they could chuck an extra few pence on fuel and booze (except whiskey of course), and maybe increase tax on some of the petrol companies who are busy emptying the big (or possibly small) pools of oil under the North Sea to enable them to give every Scottish kid an iPhone we were fairly disinterested. But should we have been?
There is already talk of income tax rates that could vary by up to 15% compared to the rest of the UK. OK you may think, that is just one area of tax and not that important to the rest of us. After all road tax, NI and capital allowances were supposedly not on the table but a tax expert and good friend of mine, Alistair Kendrick, pointed out that if the Scottish Parliament starts messing about with tax rates and bandings it could affect the Scots and the amount of benefit in kind (BIK) tax they pay on their company cars.
And this is just one likely change, God knows what else is likely to come out as we fully appreciate the cost of consequential damage following increased devolution. What was Cameron saying – ‘We’re all in it together’ Hmmm interesting times ahead. It won’t be long before we all troop up to Scotland to buy our cars, have them serviced, MOT’d and fill them up with fuel. Watch this space! By Graham Hill
