2 October 2019
Scotland’s tax authority raised revenue of £706m in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT) in 2018-19, bringing the total since 2015 to over £2.5bn.
And Revenue Scotland’s continued focus on compliance raised an additional £1.03m over the 12-month reporting period.
The figures were revealed in the tax authority’s 2018-19 Annual Report and Accounts which were published today (Wednesday 2 October).
Revenue Scotland Chairman, Dr Keith Nicholson, said the revenue raised highlighted the importance of tax revenue to the funding of public services, while the report also highlighted the achievements delivered during the first year of the organisation’s 2018-21 Corporate Plan.
He said: “A total of £706m of revenue from LBTT and SLfT in 2018-19 saw the total since Revenue Scotland began collecting tax to over £2.5bn, a significant contribution to Scotland’s public services.”
“Our compliance activity continues to ensure that people are paying the right amount of tax at the right time, in line with our statutory function to protect public revenue.”
He continued: “We are also reporting on the progress of the first year of our 2018-21 Corporate Plan. This shows our performance against 11 KPIs – for example, we significantly exceeded our target to keep average waiting times for calls to our support desk to under 10 seconds, with an average time of 5.2 seconds.”
“But it also shows our wider achievements as a maturing and forward-looking organisation. And in the last 12 months this included the development of our new online portal for submitting tax returns, producing our first British Sign Language plan, achieving Cyber Essentials accreditation to ensure we are protecting taxpayer information and developing the Scottish Tax Education Programme, a bespoke training programme to provide our staff with the right skills and expertise.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
Revenue Scotland is the Non-Ministerial Department responsible for the administration and collection of Scotland’s devolved taxes – currently Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). These taxes came into effect in April 2015, replacing their UK equivalents (Stamp Duty Land Tax and UK Landfill Tax respectively).
A total of £706m of tax revenue was raised in 2018-19 comprising:
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax £554,185,000
Scottish Landfill Tax £148,517,000
Penalties and interest £3,135,000
Total £705,837,000
The values above are for tax returns and amendments submitted during 2018-19 and adjusted for the value of LBTT and SLfT returns received during April and May 2019 which relate to the period up to the 31 March 2019.
During the 2018-19 reporting period Revenue Scotland also:
- Secured £1,025,878m in tax revenue through compliance activity;
- Maintained administrative costs at 0.73% of the total annual tax revenue – equal to the OECD benchmark;
- Increased its Employee Engagement Index score from 62% in 2018-19 to 67% in 2018-19, ranking Revenue Scotland in the top 25% of Civil Service organisations taking part UK-wide and second in Scotland.