Scottish Income Tax Board minutes: May 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Deputy Director, Tax Strategy, Engagement, and Performance, Scottish Government (SG) (Chair) 

• Head of Tax Strategy and Income Tax, SG

• Income Tax Team Leader and the Single Point of Contact for Scottish Income Tax, SG

• Economic Adviser, Fiscal Analysis, Office of the Chief Economic Adviser, SG

• Deputy Director, Income Tax Policy, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

• Head of Income Tax: Structure, Devolution, and Strategy, HMRC

• Head of Inheritance, International, and Devolved Analysis, HMRC

Apologies

• Senior Policy Advisor, Devolved Income Tax and the Single Point of Contact for Scottish Income Tax, HMRC

Items and actions

Review of actions points

The board reviewed the outstanding actions from the previous meeting. 

Chair’s board papers update

The board discussed the correspondence papers. 

The board approved the 2022 to 2023 Quarter 4 Finance report. 

Restructuring the Scottish Income Tax Board

The board agreed that agenda items will shift from business as usual toward more strategic and in-depth agenda items. These will concentrate on continuous improvement activity, along with themed agenda items aligned to the Scottish Income Tax Service Level Agreement. 

The board agreed to engage with external stakeholders and to organise an annual stakeholder event on the administration of Scottish Income Tax.

The board agreed to review membership of the board and reflect changes in the Terms of Reference. It also agreed to further review board membership after six months, and consider whether to invite non-executives to join the board.  

The board agreed to publish the board Terms of Reference and the minutes of all meetings from the 2023 to 2024 tax year onwards on GOV.UK and SCOT.GOV.

Scottish Income Tax identification and assurance update

The board reviewed HMRC’s activity to identify and maintain an accurate record of Scottish taxpayers in the previous quarter.

The board commissioned a longer time series of data of identification and assurance activity in the quarterly Business Intelligence Report. The board also commissioned data on:

• customer satisfaction scores  
• Personal Tax Account web hits
• employers that incorrectly apply the Scottish ‘S’ code issued to them by HMRC 

Compliance update

The board discussed planned work to assess the affect of the increased divergence between Scottish Income Tax rates and rest of UK Income Tax rates. The increased divergence starts in the 2023 to 2024 tax year.

The board agreed that HMRC and SG should work together on the Scottish Income Tax Compliance Plan 2023. The plan will outline HMRC’s anticipated compliance activity in relation to Scottish Income Tax in the tax year up to 5 April 2024. This activity will pertain to tax liabilities from the 2021 to 2022 tax year. 

The board agreed that a meeting should be arranged between SG and HMRC teams to discuss how their work links together.

Scottish Income Tax outturn methodology

The board discussed the changes to the methodology for the calculation of the 2021 to 2022 Scottish Income Tax outturn. 

The reduction in estimated receipts from compliance activity was provisional at the time of the board meeting and was subject to confirmation by HMRC and SG. 

The board approved the outturn methodology subject to this confirmation. 

Scottish Income Tax impacting

The board discussed HMRC’s process to assess the impacts a change to Scottish Income Tax would have on customers and HMRC.

The board discussed the importance of HMRC being brought into policy development at an early stage to confirm feasibility, costs and delivery timelines.

The board agreed that the impacting process for Scottish Income Tax should be reflected in the Service Level Agreement. 

Forward look 

The board reviewed its 2022 to 2023 forward look. No changes were proposed.

Any other business and close

No other business raised at the board. The chair closed the meeting.