Taxing question

I CHECKED Lesley Riddoch’s claim (Perspective, 16 January) that in Sweden personal taxpayers pay all taxation to the local authority unless they earn more than £35,000 a year, when they start to pay to central government.

My Swedish contacts confirm it, although they thought the threshold was £33,000 a year. Ms Riddoch points out that this system is normal across the rest of Europe.

So the United Kingdom is out of step again and it’s not just the Scottish Parliament that spends funds it does not have to collect from taxation.

All the UK’s local authorities only collect about a third of the money they spend annually. How much better to have to collect all the money that is spent and have to account for it.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh