WYLIE & BISSET: SCOTTISH BUDGET FOCUSES ON FUNDING AND SPENDING
Glasgow-based chartered accountants, Wylie & Bisset, say that Finance Secretary Kate Forbes’ first budget has put funding and spending at its forefront, while sidestepping tax hikes.
Warning that Scotland’s economic growth will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, Ms Forbes confirmed that Scotland had suffered an unprecedented ‘economic shock’, triggering extra borrowing powers.
GDP is currently 7.1 per cent down on 2020.
Catherine McManus, Tax Partner at Wylie & Bisset, said: “It was a Budget with not much to say on tax. The focus was on funding and spending with uncertainties around access to wider UK funds.
“The tax references were largely as expected with the Scottish rates already higher than the rest of the UK. It is now a waiting game to see what the UK Budget brings on 3 March and whether that will impact the Scottish Budget thereafter.”
Ms Forbes has no plans to raise income tax rates for Scottish taxpayers. With assumed personal allowances at £12,570 for 2021/22 the main thresholds will rise with inflation providing a small amount of tax easing for some.
