Scots tax crisis

I cannot believe that there is a crisis with Revenue Scotland (your report, 15 December).

The white paper Scotland’s Future promised (on pages 362 and 363) that on independence Scotland will have an expanded Revenue Scotland, ready to progressively take on additional responsibilities for tax and excise collection/credits.

If we were expected to vote in favour of independence in 
September on the basis of such an assurance, how come there are such fears for the much more modest requirement that Revenue Scotland should collect a handful of taxes already agreed upon prior to the referendum?

I suspect that this is just another case of scaremongering, as evidenced by the suggestion that contingency plans have been drawn up with pen and paper 
alternatives in place when the new Scottish land and buildings transaction tax can be worked out on a simple spreadsheet.

I would have thought that a suitably trained chimpanzee with a rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic could collect the tax.

Sandy Gemmill

Warriston Gardens

Edinburgh