This, from the Guardian, is quite shocking: The Treasury has warned that it could refuse to agree a formal currency union with an independent Scotland unless Scottish public spending was heavily restrained and the country cut its debts to reassure the markets. The message is loud and clear and is that despite austerity failing and whatever the
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I was pleased to get this press release this afternoon: UNISON Scotland today urged the Scottish Government to ban companies involved in tax dodging from being eligible for public contracts. The public services union said that Ministers should use their forthcoming Procurement Reform Bill to take innovative action against companies using tax havens and other
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John Swinney, Scottish Finance Minister issued a press release today saying: “Scotland needs full control of the key economic levers to meet the specific challenges facing the Scottish economy – and the cross-party Scotland Bill Committee in the last parliament concluded that this power should be available to the Scottish Government if it is granted
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Unite published the following briefing written by me on corporation reform tax in Scotland this afternoon: What is corporation tax? Corporation tax is the tax due on a company’s profits. What’s the big deal with corporation tax now? Corporation tax is right at the forefront of economic debate at present, especially in Scotland.  The Scottish Government is to argue
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As the BBC in Scotland have reported: The Scottish government is to unveil its plans on taking control of corporation tax. Finance Secretary John Swinney will confirm a move to lower the headline rate of business tax and to give tax breaks to small firms. Excluding north sea oil, corporation tax generated £2.6bn in revenue
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The Scottish Campaign for Fiscal Responsibility is a new organisation, launched this month. It says of itself that it: is an independent, non-party political coalition As far as it goes  that may be true. But in The Scotsman this morning it was arguing for tax competition. And on its web site it argues for greater fiscal freedom for Scotland
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It was, I suppose, inevitable that the SNP’s recent victory in the Scottish elections would set the tax haven enthusiast free to argue that Scotland should join that pariah’s club, urged on by Alex Salmond’s call for Scotland to have the right to set its own corporation tax rate. And that has duly happened. As the Scotsman reports this
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