Devolved taxes: policy framework consultation

Overview

The Scottish Government is consulting on a new approach to the planning, management and implementation of the fully devolved taxes in Scotland.

Why We Are Consulting

The Scottish Government is committed to being more open and accessible to Scotland's people than ever before; to give the public information about the decisions it makes, to support people to understand and influence those decisions, and to value and encourage accountability.

The Programme for Government 2018-19 made a commitment to establishing a more strategic and structured process to engagement, legislation and delivery around the fully devolved taxes^[1].

The Scottish Government considers this to be an appropriate time to consult on a Devolved Taxes Policy Framework to establish the process by which changes to the fully devolved taxes will be proposed, consulted on and assessed.

We welcome responses from organisations and individuals on these issues, drawing on their experience in domestic and international taxation.

Responding to this Consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 6 June 2019.

Please respond to this consultation using the Scottish Government’s consultation hub, Citizen Space (http://consult.gov.scot).  You can access and respond to this consultation online at https://consult.gov.scot/financial-strategy/devolved-taxes-policy-framework/. You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open.

Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date of 6 June 2019.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form at the end of the document and send it to:

Fully Devolved Taxes Policy Unit
Scottish Government
Area 3D North
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document. 

To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy: /privacy/.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at http://consult.gov.scot.  If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence.  Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so.  An analysis report will also be made available in late summer.  

An announcement on the new process will then be made as part of the 2020-21 Scottish Budget in late 2019.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the contact address above or to DevolvedTaxes.Consultations@gov.scot.