New income tax powers and their ongoing administration: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02861
Date received: 26 November 2017
Date responded: 21 December 2017

Information requested

Can you please tell me what costs, if any, there will be in setting up the new income tax powers and their ongoing administration, in the following areas:

• additional cost to HMRC which will be either

  • absorbed by HMRS
  • cross-charged to the Scottish Government

• Additional costs to the Scottish Government in terms of

  • cross charges from HMRC
  • additional staff to set up local administration, processes and data
  • additional IT
  • either amendments to existing systems
  • new applications and systems
  • both

Response

The collection and management of income tax remains entirely reserved and is therefore a matter for HMRC and the UK Government. As such the Scottish Government has not needed to set up any local administration processes or data handling processes that have required additional IT and has therefore not incurred any costs in these areas.

Every year the Scottish and UK Governments report on the progress in implementing the two Scotland Acts. These reports include details of the costs incurred to date and forecasts of the lifetime costs to complete the implementation of the Scottish income tax powers. The current Scottish Government report is available at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00516889.pdf

and the UK Government report at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61056 2/Fifth_Annual_Report_on_the_Implementation_of_the_Scotland_Act_and_First_An nual_Report_of_the_Scotland_Act_2016.pdf

The National Audit Office audit the administration on the Scottish Income tax powers on an annual basis including implementation and administration costs. Their most recent report was published on the 27th November and is available here.

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-administration-of-the- Scottish-rate-of-Income-Tax-2016-17-1.pdf

Costs incurred in 2017/18 will be reported on in the Scottish and UK Governments' reports on the implementation of the Scotland Acts, due to be published in April 2018 and will subsequently be audited and reported on by the National Audit Office.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses