Westminster’s tax on jobs will hurt Scotland's economy
The Westminster government talks about growth - yet Westminster's tax on jobs will damage Scotland’s economic growth. It is also being put through in such a way as to hurt Scotland unfairly.
If Scotland was an independent country controlling its own taxes it would not put through a damaging last minute tax that seems calculated to wreck previous financial planning.
Three-quarters of Scottish farms to be hit by UK farm tax hammer
The UK government’s attack on the future of farming which is causing huge anger across the sector and saw tractors massing in London and Edinburgh recently was based on dodgy numbers.
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not consult either the Scottish government or the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to check the numbers. There was no impact assessment or consultation.
Scotland cannot afford the UK's attack on its farming sector
The row over the UK Government’s decision to change the rules on agricultural inheritance tax comes at a time when Scotland’s agricultural sector is already facing huge pressures.
The new tax rules have received a lot of publicity - some of it focusing on very wealthy people like Jeremy Clarkson and James Dyson. There is undoubtedly a case for changing the tax regime so that the super-rich can’t use it as a loophole to avoid inheritance tax. However, the way it has been done is to slam more cost and uncertainty on a sector that is already breaking under the pressure.
A Business for Scotland proposal to ring fence oil taxes for investment is now SNP policy
Many Scots are angry that the profits from the exploitation of Scotland’s oil for the last 50 years have gone south. There is little to show for the oil boom in Aberdeen and other areas where they were extracted.
How will changes to tax duties affect Scotland's whisky industry?
Whisky and drinks production in general is a vital industry for the Scottish economy. Distilling provides thousands of jobs and contributes millions to Scotland, and the wider UK’s, exports. Recently, Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK is changing how it classifies duty payments on alcoholic beverages, which will have a significant impact on the whisky industry, with businesses arguing that the effects could be ‘catastrophic’. In this article, we will review how whisky and other distilling industries contribute to the Scottish economy and the full scale of the impact of these changes to businesses in Scotland.
Oil company profits double but are they taxed appropriately?
Shell last week reported an annual profit of almost $40bn for 2022 (£33.3bn). This is double their profits of $19.2bn (£16bn) for 2021 and smashed their previous record of $28.4bn (£23.7bn) set in 2008. Just today, BP also reported profits for 2022 of $28bn (£23.3bn), more than double the amount it made in 2021 and the highest in the company's 144-year history.
Scots caught up in UK energy disaster look enviously at independent Nordic states
Anger is mounting in Scotland as energy prices soar for consumers while energy producers announce record profits. Many Scots look enviously at Nordic countries such as Finland where bills are much lower thanks to plentiful, cheap renewable energy.