Call to scrap income tax

INCOME tax should be scrapped and replaced with a tax on spending, a top Scots business figure claimed yesterday.

Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life Investments, says a new "expenditure tax" would encourage Britons to save and avoid debt.

Speaking at a business breakfast in Edinburgh yesterday, he said: "It would be much more sensible to levy a tax on the money you spend, rather than on what you earn.

"It creates an incentive to save and is eminently do-able."