Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): 3. To ask the Scottish Government how it will tackle avoidance of the taxes devolved under the Scotland Act 2012. (S4O-02929)
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth (John Swinney): I have made clear this Government’s determination to act decisively on avoidance of devolved taxes. The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill, which is currently before Parliament, contains powers that will enable revenue Scotland to take robust action to counteract tax avoidance, and we have included anti-avoidance measures in both the devolved taxes acts that this Parliament has already passed.
Stewart Stevenson: Is the cabinet secretary aware that the latest HM Revenue and Customs figures report that the United Kingdom Government is failing to collect £35 billion in taxes through avoidance schemes, illegal tax dodging and mistaken underpayments? Given that Scotland’s share of the amount that is being lost to the UK Treasury is approximately £3.47 billion, can the minister tell us how Scotland would benefit between now and 2016 if the UK Government were to implement a general anti-avoidance rule?
John Swinney: As I made clear to Parliament in the introduction of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill, the bill will include a general anti-avoidance rule that is simple and more comprehensive than the corresponding provisions that the UK Government is considering. Our general anti-avoidance rule is designed to catch artificial tax-avoidance arrangements, whereas the UK approach is based on a narrow test of abuse.
Our general anti-avoidance rule will, of course, apply only to devolved taxes. If we had the ability to apply it across the full range of taxes, we could apply the ethos and approach that I have set out to consideration of wider taxation issues.
In introducing the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill, I have made it clear that I want Parliament to consider and to test the provisions that the Government is putting in place. If there are measures that Parliament believes would strengthen the general anti-avoidance rule that we have advanced, I would be very open to considering them and to ensuring that Scotland embarks on its approach to tax collection with as robust an approach to tackling tax avoidance as possible.
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About Stewart Stevenson
Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - Bell Baxter - and studied Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with a modest degree in 1969. That's also the year Sandra & I married. Her family comes from the North East.Thirty years later I retired from Bank of Scotland as Director of Technology Innovation and was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2001 as member for Banff & Buchan having first joined the SNP in 1961.
I then represented the new constituency of Banffshire & Buchan Coast Constituency in our Parliament. I retired as an MSP on 5th May 2021
I was also previously (2007-2010), Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change and (2011-2012), Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
I hold the honorary posts of President of the Scottish Association for Public Transport
and Vice-President of Railfuture UK.I am a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a Member at The Institution of Engineering and Technology, a Professional Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a Member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and an Associate Member of the Highland Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association.
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