Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 - Devolved Taxes Accounts
Foreword
Welcome to the Revenue Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the Devolved Taxes for 2022-23.
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).
Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 - Resource Accounts
Statement from the Chair
I am delighted to be able to report another year of positive progress at Revenue Scotland.
Revenue Scotland update on Secure Message Service (SMS)
Operational change
From 4 December 2023, Revenue Scotland will default to undertaking written tax related correspondence with registered SETS users via SMS through our SETS portal.
Tax related emails received by Revenue Scotland will receive a response informing you that the request should be resubmitted via SMS on the SETS portal.
New Green Freeports guidance released
We have introduced guidance for our new tax relief on Green Freeports which come into effect on 1 October 2023.
The guidance includes the overview of the tax relief, key terms, how to claim the relief and also how to withdraw the relief.
Revenue Scotland responds to Programme for Government
In his Programme for Government statement on 5 September, the First Minister Humza Yousaf, announced that the Scottish Government is pursuing the devolution of powers to introduce an Building Safety Levy in Scotland.
The levy will be payable by those operating in the residential property development sector. The exact scope and structure of the levy in Scotland will be designed by the Scottish Government in due course.
New Scottish Landfill Tax Rates 2023/24
The Scottish Landfill Tax (Standard Rate and Lower Rate) Order 2023 has now been approved by the Scottish Parliament and came into effect on 1 April 2023. As a result, taxable disposals made or treated as made on or after 1 April 2023 will be subject to the following rates of SLfT:
Change to authority to act time limit
Revenue Scotland has decided to remove the 12 month authority to act time limit to allow us to provide a more efficient service to our taxpayers and agents.
From 19 March 2023, the 12 month authority to act limit for all future tax returns received will no longer be applicable. Agents will retain authorisation status unless we are notified by either the taxpayer or the agent.
Conveyance tax returns submitted prior to 19 March 2023
Additional Dwelling Supplement consultation launched
Following a recent review of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax - Additional Dwelling Supplement, The Scottish Government have published proposed legislative changes in a consultation and are inviting responses from all interested parties.
Views sought on exemptions.
Councils would no longer pay a tax on additional properties when supported by the Scottish Government to buy properties for affordable housing stock, under proposals in a new consultation.
Appendix C Data Quality and Further Information
All data were extracted as at 31 May 2022 but, in keeping with Revenue Scotland’s revisions policy, some of the data relating to earlier years has not been updated. For LBTT and SLfT, only data for 2020/21 onwards has been updated (and for sub-Scotland geographies, only the most recent year was updated).
Reliefs
There are various data quality issues with reliefs information collected from LBTT returns in previous years, although these issues do not affect the total LBTT declared due.