Local tax 'worse than poll tax' to Scots service personnel

Published on Sunday 20 July 2008 22:01

BRITAIN'S armed forces minister yesterday expressed "serious concerns" over Scottish Government proposals for a local income tax.

Bob Ainsworth said the introduction of the controversial tax would have a "damaging" impact on Scottish service personnel and could lower morale.

In a letter to John Swinney, Scotland's finance secretary, Mr Ainsworth also said Ministry of Defence ministers felt the local income tax would be more unfair in its impact on the armed forces than the poll tax.

Under the SNP proposal, the tax would be set at 3p in the pound, replacing the current council tax system.

Servicemen and women currently have their council tax paid by the Ministry of Defence, who take a deduction from their pay by way of a contribution.

Mr Ainsworth said: "I have extremely serious concerns over the replacement of council tax with a local income tax and the damaging impact it would have on service and MoD civilian personnel, especially those younger and lower paid personnel."

Mr Ainsworth added that the charges paid by privates would rise from 33 a year to 600. "An army warrant officer's payments would increase from 84 a year to 1,570 and a navy commander would have to pay 2,924 per annum instead of 113."

"We cannot quantify the cost of necessary changes to our payroll system without details of the system you are proposing. But it should be compared with the introduction of the poll tax, which required the establishment of a new administrative team.

"The money required to fund this would reduce the resources that we can get to the frontline."