Scottish income tax report covers key audit risks

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report today on HMRC's administration of Scottish income tax, including the final calculation of Scottish revenues for the 2019/20 tax year.

The Auditor General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle, provides additional assurance to the Scottish Parliament on the work of the NAO in this area.

In his accompanying report, he says the NAO's approach was reasonable and covered the key audit risks. He also draws attention to the main findings in the NAO report, including:

• The Scottish Income Tax outturn for 2019/20 is £11.833 billion. This is less than forecast and will reduce the 2022/23 Scottish budget by £34m
• HMRC's provisional estimate of Scottish Income Tax for 2020/21 is £12.035 billion. This is within one per cent of the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s most recent forecast for the year, which the Scottish Government uses to set its budget.

Both the NAO and Auditor General reports will be presented to the Scottish Parliament's Public Audit Committee.

Stephen Boyle said:

I am pleased that the NAO has been able to report that HMRC has implemented adequate processes and that the outturn of income tax for 2019/20 is fairly stated.

It's now important, given Covid-19's economic impact and differences between Scottish and UK tax policies, that the Scottish Government and HMRC keep governance and assurance arrangements under continual review.

The Auditor General has reported extensively on the implementation of Scotland's new financial powers.

Audit Scotland has also published a briefing on the operation of the Fiscal Framework, including arrangements for Scottish income tax.

Any enquiries on the Auditor General's Scottish income tax assurance report should be directed to pmcfall@audit-scotland.gov.uk on 0131 625 1663 or media@audit-scotland.gov.uk.

Media enquiries concerning the NAO report should be directed to pressoffice@nao.org.uk