Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 3919 contributions
|
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
The principal reason for our meeting is to take evidence on the “Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22” report, which was produced on 12 January this year by the Auditor General for Scotland and is, in turn, a commentary on a report that was prepared by the National Audit Office.
I am pleased to welcome our four witnesses, who are here in person this year. Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, is accompanied by Mark Taylor, audit director at Audit Scotland. I am particularly pleased to welcome Gareth Davies, Comptroller and Auditor General at the National Audit Office, who is appearing in person before the committee for, I think, the first time. He is joined by Darren Stewart, audit director at the NAO.
We have a series of questions to put to the witnesses, but I begin by inviting the Auditor General for Scotland to make a short opening statement.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Sure.
Public Audit Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Good morning, and welcome, everybody, to the fifth meeting in 2023 of the Public Audit Committee. Under the first item on the committee’s agenda, do members agree to take agenda items 3, 4 and 5 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you very much. I will kick off. You make the point that HMRC estimates that Scottish income tax revenue in 2021-22 will be £13.2 billion, which would be an increase of about 11.3 per cent on the previous year—a year when the economy was in lockdown—but it is also estimated that the increase in the UK will be 13.2 per cent, which is significantly more than in Scotland. Why is there an expected difference between UK performance and Scottish performance?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Yes.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
That clarification is helpful—thank you for that.
Obviously, the estimates are in the domain of the decision-making process, so they are quite important to us. That is why we have taken the view that having better data would give us a clearer sense of where policy should go and what will have the most impact in relation to raising revenue or redistributing the burden of taxation.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
The Auditor General wants to come in on that point.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you. There is a whole other area that we want to explore, which includes the tax gap and other data issues. Colin Beattie will lead on that.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you. Obviously, the committee will consider what its next steps are on that, but there would be interest in understanding whether private debt collection agencies are now being deployed.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Auditor General, I want to touch on something in your report. In paragraph 42, which is in the section on taxpayer behaviour, you say:
“In my view, the publication of the income tax behavioural analysis and the development of a dataset to track taxpayer responses to income tax changes over time is a positive development.”
Can I check with you where that is? I have not seen anything published yet, but is there an expectation that something will be published later this year? Has work been commissioned to get that data set and put it into the public domain?
