Scottish First Minister: Rises to Income Tax for Top Earners is 'daft'

There is consistently fierce debate in the media around how the top earners in the UK are taxed. Many believe that the top earners should be dutiful and pay considerably higher rates of taxes to support government spending to further develop and build upon a strong infrastructure within the public sector. First Minister of Scotland, Nicole Sturgeon, recently branded suggestions that the top rate of income tax should rise to 50p as ‘reckless and daft’. At International Tax Search, we believe that whilst tax increases for high income earners can benefit the purse of the government in the short term, long term considerations must be taken into account as this may lead to top earners opting to relocate to other jurisdictions with favourable tax legislation. 

The article mentions:

“…she pointed to research which suggested that if 7% of Scotland's top tax payers left the country in order to avoid paying an increased income tax rate, Scotland would lose £30m a year in tax revenues.

Ms Sturgeon added: "Doing it in the face of analysis that says that right now it could actually reduce the amount of money we have to invest in our National Health Service and our public services would not be radical, it would be reckless. It would not be daring, it would be daft.

"So we will not do it straight away. Instead we will continue to consider it in light of our experience and analysis, and in the meantime we will put forward fair, reasonable and progressive tax proposals.”

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Nicola Sturgeon: Income tax rise for top earners 'daft'