The Scottish National newspaper has reported that:
THE Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) has today announced a “comprehensive” new report on building a new sovereign nation, The National can reveal. Titled Transitioning Scotland: Building The Institutions For Our New Country, the work will cover borders, customs, security, taxation and currency and banking and will be published in parts — with the first coming as early as the end of October.
The rest — led by experts including Professor Richard Murphy, Dr Philippa Whitford and Dr Craig Dalzell — will follow over a three-month period culminating ahead of the May 2021 election.By June, it is hoped that the complete set will be “ready to guide the new parliament”.
It looks like I should finish my contribution in that case. It is, of course, about tax and the role it will play in an independent Scotland and right now it is way over length.
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I am looking forward very much to reading your contribution, as I am sure many others are too. What you write will be an important contribution to the conversations we must have, as we prepare for independence.
It is not often that one gets to be part of the setting up of a new country. It is an exciting moment in Scotland’s history.
I have a lot more work to do on this as yet
Thank goodness my sons have gone to university….
This is very welcome news. Thank you for your input into this important and positive-thinking report.
Really pleased to see SNP MPs actively engaging with you Richard. Phillipa is my MP, and I’m really impressed, actually awestruck, at her hard work on so many issues. She also comes across very well in interviews and in the Commons.
If she and a few of her colleagues are coming round to the ideas of MMT, there’s reasons for optimism that Scotland could use MMT as a tool in its economic armoury.
Phillipa’s measured tones and quite posh accent conceal a rapier wit. I’m glad she’s on our side.
Dammit, I have posh tones
And I well recall as a child being fascinated that my granny’s bath tub was made of tin and hung on the kitchen door
That changed when I was eight
But posh tones can be misleading….
Thank you for your contribution to this.
A lot gets said about if Scotland will become independent and the technicalities of a referendum but it’s important to develop how Scotland might become independent.
For yes to win I think there needs to be a positive campaign. Brexit got over the line by carefully not having a plan and simply attacking the EU. I don’t think that could work for Scotland. We need a clear vision, we need to get detailed plans out and we need to tackle people’s views on things like a Scottish currency.
Tax is so important to creating this new country that people will want to live in. I think most UK citizens are despondent about tax with a seeming impenetrable system where people of average means get clobbered while billionaires sail off to tax havens on their yachts. For Scotland to seem a better offer there has to be a really great offer on tax.
I know you will write a great plan for fair taxation post-independence and I’m really looking forward to reading it and canvassing voters next year with an explanation of how tax might work post-independence.
With my careers adviser hat on, I hope you’re charging a decent fee for your uniquely valuable perspective 😉
It’s being done for free….
Could you in particular look at Oil / Gas industry taxation, and bearing in mind it is mostly foreign owned. So taxing profit does not work very well as they can usually arrange that there is very little ‘profit’ in Scotland. For example Norway is getting £10 billion a year in tax while the UK is getting £1 billion or almost exactly the same production. In addition tax on the spirits industry (which is a lot more than whisky as most UK gin is also made in Scotland). Also largely foreign owned and in many cases with the high value jobs (sales, marketing, distribution etc) in London or elsewhere. I tend to think some sort of royalty per barrel on oil or per bottle on spirits might be more effective. Since we want to promote more work / money remaining in Scotland then perhaps the royalty could be offset against e.g. corporation tax paid in Scotland or PAYE paid.
The issue is in….
I confess to being a little off-topic this morning, but following yet more evidence of a growing Scottish independence majority in polling, in lighter mood I find myself musing on Unionism; how to account for its past success. It strikes me that Conservatism-Unionism does not promote ideas. It knows nothing of competence, it cares nothing for consistency. It lives on slogans; and in Scotland it is failing.
It seems to me we should help Unionism out in its hour of need. Provide Conservative Unionism with some winning slogans. This is not my strong suit, but I have had a go. Here are some rough ideas.
Conservative Unionists tell us they hate symbols; so here is the slogan to sort it all out.
The Union: Flagging a Dead Horse.
Unionists are big on fish, but we should remember that fishing includes West Coast fisherman who provide the best crustaceans and molluscs in the world, to Europe.
The Union: White Fish Only.
Conservative Unionists long for a simpler, warmer Britain of the past. The Britian with ‘Great’ in the title. We need some nostalgia for older folk. This is also apt for our current times.
The Union: Closed Mon.-Sat. Closed Sundays.
Then there is a slogan for the Grand Srategy, that also captures the essence of our history.
The Union: By Appointment – Pirates.
You catch my drift, and I am sure readers are better than anything I can produce.
I’m delighted to hear you’re playing a major part in defining how a taxation system should be built for an independent Scotland. This is a fantastic opportunity to create a principles-driven system from scratch and avoid the complexities and anomalies which beset the UK system. It’s also a genuine once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide the means to create a more egalitarian society and I suspect it’s the kind of “gig” which might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you.
A significant cause of the UK system’s problems has been 2 centuries of tinkering by successive Chancellors, often for purely ideological reasons, which have produced countless anomalies, reversals and unforeseen outcomes. One way to minimise this risk in a new Scottish tax system would be to define the aims (egalitarian society, control of inflation etc), principles (better regulation, more transparent economic management etc) and proposed methods of the system in a “Taxation Constitution” which would in effect be a sub-set of the National Constitution and referred to in the latter. If any future politician seeks to alter any of these principles, it would require specific approval of the Scottish Parliament as it would in effect be altering an aspect of the National Constitution.
The outcome of building such a system from the bottom up can only be a simpler, more logical and intuitive system than currently exists in the UK. The challenge will be to prevent increasing complexity developing over time, hence the Tax Constitution.
Don’t be too optimistic
I am human….