I loathe the Scottish Government

[Dineasair]

I loathe the Scottish Government. I want to see the SNP/Green Party coalition roast in hell! They can take any MSP who voted for the Gender Reform Bill or the Hate Crime Laws with them. Is it now a hate crime for a Scottish Woman to say that?

They have spent nearly £30 million on the national care service bill so far and it hasn't even made it through Parliament! HOW is that even possible?!

Second rate regional administrators- out of their depth , floundering in a sea of incompetence.

£600, 000 to KPMG for what ?

@HappierTimesAhead what? That's unbelievable!

It really is. Scottish Government confirmed the amount in a response to Conservative chairman Craig Hoy (reported on the BBC).
It's absolutely mind boggling. It could have been spent directly on addressing the crisis in social care.

I was thinking about moving back home to Scoland after 30+ years in England. I now ask myself is it a wise choice and please explain the coment about £10k extra tax and stamp duty

Changes to income tax rates earlier this year mean anyone on more than £28,867 in Scotland will pay more income tax than someone with the same earnings elsewhere in the UK. We also pay 10% stamp duty on a much lower priced property than in England. All for the privilege of the SG frittering away those taxes on legislation that they can't even get through parliament.

The stamp duty thresholds are different (called land reform tax now in Scotland) so it starts at 145k - 250k is 2%, 250k - 325k is 5% 325k - 750k is 10%. 750k+ is 12%
Many areas house prices are high so your auto paying 10% for many places.

England the 10% doesn't kick in til 925k and doesn't start til 250k at 5%.
Which means it's an auto 10% tax before you then also look at income tax bands.

I’m paying more into my pension to offset the income tax.
DS (well paid professional) has moved south of the border and won’t be back.

They’re also intending that houses can’t be sold unless they are at least EPC D.
So, no young people getting a foot on the housing ladder by buying a fixer upper then. Way to go to stagnate the housing market.
But I think the grand plan is for no one to be home owners. Let the state take care of all your needs…

Ha ha. That'll be another deluded green policy that will be relegated to the dustbin once the reality becomes clear.

I think that one has been pushed back too on the basis they were making promises with no funding available to do it!

Along with a long list of other unachievable pipe dreams which pretty much sums up the SNP's time in office.
If you are going to govern, you have to be honest about what you can and can't do. They have been anything but honest. They will say anything to appear to get one up on Westminster.

That would more than probably include my elderly mother's house. It is a 19th century stone cottage which has been improved as much as we can with double glazing and insulation in the attic space but which is still very draughty and freezing. She also has a coal fire, alongside oil-fired central heating as there is no mains gas where she lives. So if anything happened to her (and she's 81, she is not going to go on forever) and we couldn't sell the house, what happens? We rent it out? Oh wait, you have to meet certain energy standards for that too. So it just sits empty? Or gets knocked down?

The SNP just want to spend money and every time they have to make a decision between different spending priorities rather than act like a grown up they simply wail that Westminster didn’t give them an infinite supply of cash.

But remember houses lying empty is a Very Bad Thing so…. catch 22. 🙄

SNP must narrow Scotland-England income tax gap in Budget, says City of London (scotsman.com)

Financial services industry re-confirming their concerns about the gap between taxes in Scotland and England. Another organisation who are concerned about the drain of talent from Scotland

Absolutely no chance of that happening, especially if the SNP are to go back to power sharing with the Greens.

The Scottish greens would have us all living in some sort of hunter gatherer utopian commune foraging off nuts and berries.

dystopian

True!

The Greens & SNP are very much the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B of Scottish society- can we send them off into space now please?

Isn't the income tax difference between England and Scotland about £4 on £33,000?

I can't see any huge difference that would make me move between countries.

£33k is not really brain drain territory

https://greaveswestayre.co.uk/news-and-events/blog/scotland-vs-england-a-taxpayer-comparison/

There you go, comparison of how much tax you pay in Scotland/England at different salaries.

At £30k you are £11 a year worse off. At £50k, you are £1500 a year worse off. At £80k (salary of a NHS GP) you are £2346 worse off. At £100k (salary of a NHS consultant) you are £3346 worse off.

It's a lot of difference. Plus if you want to move into a bigger house to take up your position as a NHS GP or consultant, you'll pay more in stamp duty.

I wouldn't mind the higher tax rate if they weren't pissing it all away on half baked legislation that will never see the light of day.