Scots pay a higher average tax than the rest of the UK. Nearly £2,000 a year more - each.
£1,890.38 more to be precise. Here's how:
In 2011-12 Scotland paid £56.871 billion in taxes (9.9% of the UK tax take) - Figures from GERS, table 1.
The mid 2011 population estimate is 5,254,800 (latest figures available).
That means taxes of £10,822.68 for every person in Scotland - including tiny little baby-type people, toddlers and school pupils.
I haven't bothered finding another source for UK taxation revenue, I just made the calculation from GERS. That gives UK taxation for 2011-12 of £574.455bn.
The census day estimate for the UK population in 2011 was 63.2 million.
That means taxes of £9,089.47 per person in the UK - including the younger people.
So Scots pay £1,733.21 more than the UK average but that's not quite the whole story:
Take the Scottish figures out of the UK figures and the population becomes 57.9452 million and the tax take £517.584 bn; taxes of £8,932.29 per person in the rest of the UK.
So Scots pay £1,890.38 more in tax than the 'rest of the UK' average - it's nearly a £2k premium to be a Scot.
£1,890.38 for the privilege of being in the UK, for the privilege of hosting the UK's nuclear weapons, for the privilege of having Scotland's budget cut by George Osborne, for the privilege of hearing Labour politicians say we can't afford decency and equality in our public services. We pay extra just to be told we're too poor to be independent, we pay dearly for the pleasure of being told that we're too wee to survive in the big, bad world, we pay over the odds and we're told we could never survive without the rest of the UK.
I'm quite happy to pay my taxes but I'd rather see them spent in a nation where we value each other, protect the vulnerable, help people when they're down on their luck and out of work, let our pensioners live in decent circumstances, build houses fit for people to live in, build communities that act as a social safety net. I want to live in a nation that doesn't think big businesses should get free labour from people who happen to be on benefits and bullied by the Government that should be protecting them, where medical care is delivered free at the point of need, where education is free at the point of delivery, where we don't harbour weapons of mass destruction, where our international relations are about making the world a better place rather than trying to make it come to us on bended knee. I want my nation to be fair, socially just and forward-looking.
We'll pay our way in the world; we already do - don't insult us any longer.
4 comments:
This is disingenous. The extra tax you refer to is oil revenue. Individual don't pay it. Propaganda that would embarrass even Better Together.
No, Alan, it's not disingenuous; the oil refvenue is there, it belongs to us and even you have a share. When we're independent we'll still have oil revenues.
Nothing would embarrass Better Together.
It's a fair utopian picture you paint there, fellow. But you'll not find such a place on Earth, and definitely not in an independent Scotland. I recommend downloading a copy of SimCity or somesuch.
The Scots have always paid their way and get the benefits accorded them beyond their spend; that's what the Better Together lot sell: stuff you don't like, like nukes and so on, and the stuff you do, like free further education. But many of the other Scots like those "benefits", y'see?
Everything in a modern society is a poisoned chalice.
Everything.
But what are you willing to forsake for what gains? It's a tough one.
I've yet to see a (believable) estimate that the Scots' future GDP will be able to maintain the Scots infrastructure as-is, or near enough, or at least giving some cost/benefit balancing room, where you can decide on what costs for what gains, to your collective benefit and agreement.
Norway, Slovakia, Luxembourg, et al, offer no credible comparison, I fear, so it's a big empty canvas at the mo.
Will we see a Sistine Chapel or a Magnolia Anaglypta, that's the rub.
It will be a land of milk and honey - and everything else we desire :)
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