NUMBER crunchers at the National Audit Office were forced to withdraw analysis claiming half a million workers in Scotland were paying more tax than they would in the rest of the UK.
It is understood the independent parliamentary body responsible for scrutinising government spending took the highly unusual decision to cancel publication of the report late on Monday, just three hours before it was due to go live.
The report had already gone out to press, but the auditors issued a recall after disagreement with the Scottish Government over a specific estimate related to population figures.
It led to the report claiming more than half a million of Scotland’s 2.6 million taxpayers, around one in five, were affected by the Scottish Government’s decision not to pass on a tax cut made for the rest of the UK.
The Scottish Government, however, said the decision led to 306,000 taxpayers, just one in seven, paying more.
Earlier this year, in England and Wales, the threshold for paying the higher rate of tax went up to £45,000, but in Scotland it stayed at £43,000.
National Audit Office researchers calculated that this one change has hit 507,000 Scottish taxpayers with salaries of £43,000 or more, with each one paying an average of £213 more this year as a consequence.
Researchers at the National Audit Office are now going through the report “line-by-line” and will publish it “sooner rather than later”.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said the SNP government had “bullied” the auditors into taking down their report.
He said: “Once again we see this SNP government trying to bully anyone who they disagree with. It is clear that they have pressurised the National Audit Office into this climbdown, simply because the SNP didn’t like what they were hearing.”
A spokesman for the First Minister dismissed that allegation as “utter nonsense”.
He said: “It’s got to be legitimate for Scottish Government officials to speak to counterparts about the accuracy of figures. The Tories should think twice about trying to impugn the integrity of hard-working and impartial civil servants, because that is exactly what they’re doing.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “Taxpayers here already get the best deal in the UK, with a range of services and benefits which are not available elsewhere.”
Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay will publish his draft budget in the Scottish Parliament next month, and, for the first time, income tax rises seem likely.
SNP ministers, aware that they lack a majority in Holyrood, have started discussions with other political parties in a bid to try to find consensus.
Labour, the LibDems, and the Greens support a rise, while the Tories would prefer parity with the rest of the UK.
In a paper launched earlier this month, the Scottish Government set out four possible new proposals.
Nicola Sturgeon, releasing the discussion paper, said that her Government may be forced to raise taxes to counter Tory austerity.
However, she cautioned that nothing was definite at that stage.
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