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 2021/22 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, and highlights:
- The Scottish income tax outturn for 2021/22 is £13.724 billion
- HMRC’s provisional estimate of Scottish income tax for 2022/23 is £14.996 billion
- The net reconciliation of 2021/22 income tax will reduce the 2024/25 Scottish budget by £390 million. This is the largest adjustment to the budget resulting from the budget reconciliation to date.
Reconciliations correct for the difference between forecasted tax receipts used in the Scottish budget and the actual outturn which is known later.
Both the NAO and Auditor General reports will be presented to the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee.
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, 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 2021/22 is fairly stated.
Given further divergence between Scottish and UK tax policies, it’s important that the Scottish Government and HMRC keep working together to build up the data around the behaviour of Scottish taxpayers.
Ministers need this data to inform future tax policy decisions and enable more informed scrutiny.
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 or media@audit-scotland.gov.uk.
Media enquiries concerning the NAO report should be directed to luke.liles@nao.org.uk.
