Tax Directorate

What we do

The Tax Directorate leads on advising how best to grow and protect Scotland’s tax revenues with responsibility for the Scottish Government’s approach to managing the sustainability of the tax base and improving tax performance.  This includes development and provision of policy advice and legislation on devolved tax powers, to ensure the successful implementation and operation of the tax powers set out in the Scotland Acts 2012 and 2016. Tax is a major component of the powers, including Scottish Income Tax (yielding receipts of around £15 billion annually, collected by HMRC) and the fully devolved taxes (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Scottish Landfill Tax, together yielding around £850 million annually, collected by Revenue Scotland).

Responsibilities

We are responsible for:

• the development and implementation of the Scottish Government’s tax strategy, with the aim of providing sustainable tax revenues to support delivering of Scotland’s public services
• leading public engagement and discourse on tax with a wide range of stakeholders and citizens
• the design and implementation of the future Air Departure Tax (ADT) and Scottish Aggregates Tax
• the design and implementation of new tax powers and exploration of the further devolution of reserved tax powers
• working with policy colleagues across the Scottish Government and also in Revenue Scotland (collecting fully devolved taxes)
• liaising with HMRC and HM Treasury to assess the impact of UK Government reserved tax changes on Scottish Government tax policy and revenues

Who we are

Cabinet Secretary and Ministers

Management