What seems really odd, and forgive me if someone has made the point earlier, surely the Jock tax will be the only instance where service personnel are not treated tax-wise as "all of one company". That cannot be just or right.
I agree...but it has happened before. Back in the early nineties, two items of legislation (Poll Tax and the brand new Child Support Agency) threw service people under the bus in the name of political contingency. The original poll tax was introduced in Scotland first - one of the reasons the words "Margaret Thatcher" is synonymous in Scotland with the words "Evil ****" - and its introduction caused a major stink with junior ranks living in **** hole accommodation and being charged an arm and a leg for doing so.
The CSA was even worse, because Scotland operates under entirely different (and functional!) family law and for a lengthy period of time neither the CSA nor the Scottish Courts recognised each other!!!
I know of one service mate who had a complete nervous breakdown as a result of both the Scottish Courts and the CSA chasing him (in a pretty intimidating fashion) for huge sums of wonga, in total way in excess of what he was actually being paid!! He never flew again.
And where was the Service support when all this was going on...where indeed?