Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget statement: easy read summary

Our decisions about tax and social security

Tax is money we pay to the Scottish Government when we:

• buy some things
• earn money

Taxes are collected and used to pay for the things our communities need.

Things like:

• health care
• roads
• police
• schools

The Scottish Government have looked carefully at the decisions they made about:

• tax
• social security

They have found out these things:

• the way Scotland organises tax and social security is now better for people who have less money than for people who have more money

• the way Scotland organises tax and social security is more helpful for people with less money than the way it is done in other parts of the UK

• 6 out of every 10 households in Scotland will be better supported

• 8 out of every 10 households in Scotland will not pay any more tax this year

• 2 out of every 10 households will pay more tax this year

These are the households who are earning the most money.