Media and politics

The challenges of managing a partly devolved income tax regime were the focus of CIOT’s fifth successive event at an SNP conference. Titled ‘Tax at Twenty’, the event provided delegates with the chance to hear from a panel comprised of politicians, a tax expert and a pollster tasked with reviewing the evolution of Scotland’s devolved tax journey twenty years on from its inception.

This is the second event held by CIOT in 2019 to consider the devolution of taxes to the Scottish Parliament. A link to the first of these - held in partnership with ICAS - can be found here.

SNP leaders defended Scotland’s divergence from the rest of the UK on income tax during the party’s 2019 conference in Aberdeen. Tax debates were largely absent from the gathering, with it left to the CIOT to facilitate discussion around the performance of Scotland’s devolved tax regime 20 years on from its inception.

The Labour Party outlined plans for widespread nationalisation, higher public spending and taxes, and greening the economy, at its 2019 Conference in Brighton. In general, the conference took place in a highly charged and occasionally chaotic atmosphere dominated by Brexit, with the party’ leader’s speech moved to an earlier day and truncated to fit in with the unanticipated return of Parliament.

A packed fringe meeting at the Labour Conference in Brighton debated whether austerity is really over and how the party might pay for its planned spending increases.