Black sheep, Old dog and P-N. The only thing that matters is the address of your main residence. If it's in Scotland you pay Scottish rates of tax regardless of where your money comes from, where it is banked or how long you are away on detachment.
Coverage of the issue in some Scottish papers today with suggestions of an LOA type arrangement. Someone in Whitehall / Westminster seems to care.

Primary Residence
 

Timelord

Does that mean that if you own a house in England that you declare it as your main residence ie SFQ is only temp then you don’t pay Scottish tax.

How many people in the forces earn more than £33k? And if there is some sort of arrangement to reduce their extra tax, will there also be one so that the lesser paid pay English tax not the reduced (for them) Scottish rate?

excellent point!

The Law of Unintended Consequences...a source of bountiful mirth and merriment :):):):):)

Vasco, Yes in theory but you might have to prove that you spent x days there and that it wasn't rented to someone else. Where that would leave you when you try and get your kids in school or access health care I have no idea.

Cats five and TOFU. Mid range army corporals earn about £33000 - so everyone above that. The only people better off in Scotland are the very low paid and I'm not sure it will help many people in the armed forces.

Timelord so a single in Mess could become liable while attached and try and claim exemption while detached.

Depends where he/she declares their main residence to be. Attachments / detachments make no difference.

Didn't alot of MP's have problems with this? :E

OAP

Can't you just keep flipping your main residence-like MPs do?

If you are still serving when the kids go to university-that is the time to acquire a Scottish address!

That's a lot of money - well above what most people in civi street earn. But it doesn't really answer my question of what percentage would pay more under the proposed Scottish income tax? I have no idea of what the split between different ranks is.

Which is why an LOA system would be flawed. You would have to give money to those earning above 33k and take money off the juniors set to pay less tax! The whole argument should start with uniformity and every serviceman/woman should pay the same rates of tax wherever they may find themselves posted or wherever they should choose to domicile themselves during their military careers. If a Scottish offset was demanded by 'wee Jimmy Shrek', then this could probably be achieved although as noted, the winners and losers may in fact balance out.

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.

55% of Scots will pay less,45% will pay more

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?

Do 45% of Scots earn more than £33k? Really? Got a source for that?

Residence for tax purposes is a matter for the individual and HMRC. One factor they will consider is where your family are. Consequently I think it unlikely you could live in SFA with wife and kids whilst claiming a house in England is your main residence.

Whilst we all know a DIN should not be released outside of the service environment quite often they are. If you Google the relevant DIN if it has been released it will usually show up. Just to remind everyone the DIN regarding this issue is:

2015DIN01-215

Cats 5

Its not earnings its tax. 45%will pay more. That s a BBC sourced number. £33k is an indicator but it will probably catch pensions, investment income etc etc