Independent Scotland could face conflict between pressure to lower tax rates and need to fix its public finances

Stuart Adam
Paul Johnson
Barra Roantree

Published on 29 October 2013

Taxes and benefits
Government finances and spending
Tax
Scottish independence
National Insurance contributions
Devolution
Benefits

There would be plenty of scope for an independent Scotland to improve its tax system, though to do so would require a Scottish government to make the sorts of bold decisions over tax reform that successive UK governments have failed to make. But an “optimal” tax system for an independent Scotland might also be different to that for the UK as a whole.

Authors

Stuart Adam

Senior Economist

Stuart is a Senior Economist working in the Tax sector, and focuses on analysing the design of the tax and benefit system.

Paul Johnson

Director

Paul has been the Director of the IFS since 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.