Foreword
Welcome to the Revenue Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Devolved Taxes for 2019-20. This is the fifth reporting year since the organisation began its operational activity in April 2015, and also the second reporting period of Revenue Scotland's 2018-21 corporate planning period.
Revenue Scotland is responsible for the collection and management of Scotland's devolved taxes – currently Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). Amounts received from the collection of the devolved taxes, less any permitted deductions, are paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund in accordance with the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014 (RSTPA).
Revenue Scotland was established by the RSTPA, which also sets out the legislative framework for the wholly devolved taxes in Scotland.
As a Non-Ministerial Office, Revenue Scotland is part of the Scottish Administration, but is directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament to ensure the administration of tax is independent, fair and impartial.
Revenue Scotland delegates some of its legislative functions for the collection of SLfT to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). This includes the regulatory functions of the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund (SLCF) - a tax credit scheme available to landfill operators. Some functions in relation to LBTT were delegated to Registers of Scotland (RoS) to enable the processing of paper-based tax returns. Since the introduction of SETS in July 2019, the processing of paper returns has been undertaken by Revenue Scotland.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for providing independent forecasts of tax revenues in line with the Fiscal Framework[1]. Revenue Scotland provides statistical information about the taxes it collects[2].
This document sets out the financial information about the devolved taxes required under the terms of the Accounts Direction issued by Scottish Ministers.
A separate document, The Annual Report and Accounts for the Resource Accounts for 2019-20[3] provides detailed commentary on the performance of Revenue Scotland in delivering its statutory functions.
This document includes Revenue Scotland's corporate governance arrangements and reporting for the Devolved Taxes Account, audit and risk arrangements, the Independent Auditor's report and the Financial Statements for the Devolved Taxes Account.
Summary of Devolved Tax Revenue
These financial statements report income of £717m (2018-19: £706m).
| Revenue net of repayments, excluding interest payable and revenue losses | 2019-20 Tax, penalties & interest receivable Total £'000 |
2019-20 Budget Act Estimates Total £'000 |
2018-19 Tax, penalties & interest receivable Total £'000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land & Buildings Transaction Tax | 597,368 | 643,000 | 554,185 |
| Scottish Landfill Tax | 118,959 | 104,000 | 148,517 |
| Penalties & interest | 735 | 0 | 3,135 |
| Total | 717,062 | 747,000 | 705,837 |
The values in the table above are for tax returns and amendments submitted during 2019-20, and for LBTT and SLfT returns received during April and May 2020 which relate to the period up to 31 March 2020. The returns submitted during 2019-20 may include adjustments to returns originally submitted in earlier years. However, unless these adjustments were accrued into the financial statements of the relevant year, these are accounted for in the year of receipt.
The LBTT tax revenue raised in 2019-20 is dependent on the performance of both the residential and non-residential property markets within Scotland. The SLfT tax revenue raised in 2019-20 is dependent on categories and tonnage of waste deposited in landfill sites in Scotland.
Revenue Scotland is not responsible for the forecasting of expected tax revenues. The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for providing independent forecasts of tax revenue and provided the forecast for the Budget (Scotland) Act 2019-20. The Budget (Scotland) Act 2019-20 estimates were published in Scotland's Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2018.