John Swinney, the current Scottish First Minister and SNP leader (Image: Getty)
The Scottish Government is facing backlash over plans for another tax increase to fund a new ￡25,000-a-year benefits scheme.
Last year, Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced a Minimum Income Guarantee aimed at ensuring every resident in Scotland, including the unemployed and low earners, receives at least ￡25,000 annually.
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This ambitious plan, designed to combat poverty and inequality, requires substantial funding. Recent documents reveal that the financial burden will likely fall on already hard-pressed Scottish families through increased taxation.
The cost of implementing the Minimum Income Guarantee is expected to run into hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Experts are currently exploring various taxation strategies to generate the necessary revenue.
These strategies include modifications to existing tax rates, adjustments to tax allowances, reliefs, and broadening the tax base.
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The new tax increase will impact countless families across Scotland (Image: Getty)
Currently, Scots earning around ￡28,000 or more already pay higher taxes compared to their counterparts in other parts of the UK, with higher percentages across all wage brackets.
The SNP has justified these taxes by pointing to benefits like free tuition and prescriptions. However, the tax disparity widened in the latest budget with the introduction of a new Advanced income tax band.
As of April, this band imposes a 45 percent rate on annual incomes between ￡75,000 and ￡125,140, exacerbating concerns about a recruitment crisis for high-paying jobs such as NHS consultants, who can earn more in England or Wales.
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Critics argue that the SNP's approach to funding the Minimum Income Guarantee through further tax hikes is deeply flawed.
"Imposing more tax rises on hard-pressed Scots appears to be the SNP's only answer to fill the black hole they've created in the country's finances", Scottish Tory Social Security spokesman Miles Briggs said. "Despite first bringing plans for a minimum income guarantee forward over three years ago, SNP ministers have repeatedly failed to come clean about how it will be paid for."
Callum McGoldrick, a researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "Scottish taxpayers will be outraged to find the SNP plotting new ways to take more of their cash. With tax rates already higher in Scotland, hard-working Scots can't afford for their money to be spent on an experiment - it should be going to frontline services."
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