§ Mr. Mackintoshasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Inland Revenue were to continue to administer and to collect personal income tax for all employed in Scotland, but, if the rate were different from that of United Kingdom income tax, requiring only one additional set of codes, what would be the additional administrative cost of collecting this tax.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe cost of administering a Scottish income tax would depend on the form of the scheme adopted. I take it that my hon. Friend has in mind a scheme under which the tax base would be the same as for United Kingdom income tax, but that the test for liability to Scottish tax would depend on whether a person worked in Scotland, 147W rather than whether he lived there. For such a tax it is estimated that the additional administrative cost to the Inland Revenue would be somewhere about 2,000 staff costing approximately £7 million.