Devolved Scottish tax revenue hits £707m

Scotland’s devolved tax collector also reported a five-fold increase in fines issued last year.

Revenue Scotland issued £1.75 million worth of notices for charging penalties and interest in 2017-18, compared to just £342,000 the previous year.

The organisation saw the number of disputes raised by taxpayers more than double in response, up from 134 in 2016-17 to 290, most objecting to penalties for late filing.

Overall, “compliance measures” raised £2.37 million in back-dated, penalties and interest, compared to £1.95 million the year before.

The figures are in the new annual report for Revenue Scotland, which collects the two wholly devolved national taxes – land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT) and Scottish landfill tax.

The accounts show an 11.7 per cent increase in total income, up by £74 million to £707 million.

The combined total of LBTT and SLfT collected since Revenue Scotland began operating also reached £1.8 billion.

Welcoming the report, Minister for Public Finances Kate Forbes, said: “The increase in revenue reported by Revenue Scotland is welcome news and underlines the importance of the fully devolved taxes to Scotland’s economy and our public services.

“These figures show that our progressive approach to taxation is working, with revenues from the fully devolved taxes rising by £74 million to £707 million in 2017-18 and LBTT revenues £50 million higher than forecast.”