LOA for Scotland
 

After the next Scotish elections it is very likely that the Scottish Parliament will add additional income tax to its residents. Thus servicemen in Scotland will be worse off than those south of the border.

How will the MoD ensure our servicemen are not disadvantaged?

What makes you say that??

Swinney to outline Scottish budget plans for 2016/17 - BBC News

The answer for the moment is that the MoD are still in discussions regarding how service personel will be treated. There are similar discussions with other public sectors.

I understand that it will make zero difference to service personnel posted to Scotland as there is an established precedent of where we theoretically live for tax purposes. For those with direct links to Scotland (place of birth, established family links, home owner, spouse liable for Scotish taxation etc etc) things are less clear but the rumours out of MoD is that the status quo will endure. It has been rather quiet on spouses though.

I don't know the answer to this, but do serviceman based in Scotland benefit from local financial arrangements such as free university fees, prescription charges?

I think it would be suicide for current finance minister to increase taxes prior to elections planned for next year. The bad news normally comes early in a new parliament.

What about contractors supporting MoD?

I remember paying council tax in Scotland when my friends south of the border did not.

Chinook240. I believe servicemen do benefit as you suggested. This just adds to the problem.

Swinney will change nothing before the Scottish elections but watch this space after that! If he goes for a full 10p increase on top of the standard rate it will mean thousands of pounds extra tax for those earning up to the higher rate level! I suspect there will be a mass exodus from Scotland and LOA will be necessary for those in the Armed Forces.

What happens if any of the 'scot tax' bands/rates are lowered? Will HM Govt reduce pay for HM Forces in Scotland - I doubt it. Therefore, I'd predict a small 'Scotland weighting' like the one for London (if needed). That way it can be adjusted each year when the allowances are set.

Being provocative here but...

If it's true that those posted to Scotland benefit from the higher spending on public services there - free prescriptions, university have already been mentioned - then why shouldn't they pay the higher taxes these require?

LOA for Scotland

Possibly technically correct were this to apply to Northern Ireland, but not for Scotland except in the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland .....:rolleyes:

Jack

Perhaps because the average serviceman will benefit from neither free university or free prescriptions?


These things are of benefit in the long term, not the short term. Most servicemen will not be there long enough to benefit.


You could equally argue that the people based in London get all the advantages of living in the capital, so why do they get extra?

The point of taxation is that you don't get to pick and chose which 'benefits' you pay for and which you don't. I don't benefit from the Royal Family, but I still have to pay for the damned thing.

Because servicemen don't have dependants who might benefit from free higher education and/or prescription charges, do they Tourist?

Also, "advantages of living in London"? You must be referring to the overpriced everything, the high crime rates, and daily commutes from hell. I'm guessing you don't live in London.

The real point is that Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom! So why should they be allowed to vary tax! They already get the extra payments in the Barnet Formula! Cameron should be much firmer in handling this. After all the result of the referendum clearly showed that the majority of those living in Scotland want to stay in the Union:ugh:

Which is why they're still in the union, Newt. The result of the Scottish elections however gave the SNP the mandate to push for tax varying powers, which is what they got. For better or worse, it's called democracy.

^^

Absolutely. And so is the right to choose your tax domicile, if you are lucky enough to have a potential "foot in both camps".

There are a great many wealthy people in Scotland, who can, with a few mouse clicks, be tax domiciled in England, even - and perhaps especially - if Scotland becomes independent.

The movers and shakers in Scotland are well aware of that and will tread very carefully before doing something which will invoke "the law of unintended consequences".

^^ You are of course assuming that an independent Scotland will have a concept of domicile, will allow domicile to determine taxation and will allow people to choose their domicile.

The idea that people can change their tax domicile with a few mouse clicks is very amusing.

The determination of taxable status is due to 'main residence'. If I should have 2 properties (owned or not), 1 in Scotland and 1 in England, Wales or N.Ireland, I can declare the non-Scotland property as my main residence. I would need to 'reside' in the non-Scotland address for 1 day more than the Scottish address to make this so. Details are here - https://www.gov.uk/government/public...axpayer-status

Sandy, for the military the situation is a lot less clear. I have yet to see the guidance promised in the link you have provided and there is not much of the year left.

Living in a capital city has many advantages.
London is my idea of hell on balance (can't surf!), however most Londoners would not consider living anywhere else and you have to be obtuse to be unable to think of any big city pluses..

A very quick Google will show you that, contrary to the hysteria about sponging scots, Londoners have more spent on them per person than anybody else in the country. This despite the obvious economies of scale. They also have all the good shows, museums, concerts etc.

Yes you do benefit.

Even the most cursory Google will find you a cost benefit calculation for the royal family in terms of revenue from tourism etc