Scottish Fiscal Commission on tax to be set up

A new body to scrutinise Scottish Government forecasts of how much two new taxes will raise will be established this summer, Finance Secretary John Swinney announced.

John Swinney. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

An independent Scottish Fiscal Commission is being established to scrutinise anticipated receipts from the new Land and Buildings Transaction Tax - which will replace stamp duty - and the Scottish Landfill Tax.

Holyrood was given the power to determine and collect the two charges as part of the Scotland Act 2012, and while they do not come into force until April 2015, the Scottish Government said the new Scottish Fiscal Commission would come into operation this summer, as it has also been tasked with providing assurances on tax forecasts ahead of the draft budget for 2015-16, which will be published this autumn.

Mr Swinney is due to outline his plans to appoint expert commissions to the independent body when he appears before Holyrood’s Finance Committee.

The Scottish Parliament will be asked to approve his appointments in the coming weeks.

Mr Swinney hailed the creation of the Scottish Fiscal Commission as “another important milestone in the journey to enhance Scotland’s fiscal powers”.

He added: “There is widespread international recognition that independent fiscal commissions play a vital role within a country’s fiscal framework, and from this summer Scotland will have its own Commission to support the exercise of the tax powers devolved under the Scotland Act 2012.

“The Scottish Fiscal Commission will strengthen the credibility of the Scottish Government’s tax forecasts and provide the Parliament and the public with assurance over the reasonableness and integrity of the forecasts which appear in our budget documents from this autumn.

“It is essential to the effectiveness of the Commission that it is independent of the Scottish Government, and is seen to be so, and I very much welcome the role which the Scottish Parliament will play in appointing members to the Commission.”

MSPs on the Finance Committee have already given their backing to plans to establish an independent fiscal commission for Scotland.

Committee convener Kenneth Gibson stressed earlier this year that this new body must be “independent, transparent and non-partisan”.