A decade of Scottish tax administration and collection

A decade on, Revenue Scotland has a reputation for delivering outstanding operational performance and a positive culture where our staff work collaboratively across professional boundaries. Our people survey scores place us in the top 7 organisations across each theme, and we now have 9 professions represented within our teams, including the tax profession whose head of profession is Michael Paterson, our Head of Tax.

Monthly Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) statistics: February 2025

Key points

  • Residential LBTT, excluding Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), was £29.3m in February 2025. This was 1% higher than in January 2025 (£29.0m) and 27% higher than in February 2024 (£23.1m).
  • Non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was £15.0m in February 2025. This was 11% lower than January 2025 (£16.8m) and 15% lower than February 2024 (£17.7m). Non-residential revenues are highly variable between months, due to the effect of small numbers of high value transactions.

Scottish Building Safety Levy (SBSL)

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024-25 announced its intention to develop a fourth devolved tax – the Scottish Building Safety Levy (SBSL). The legislative powers to introduce the new tax have been devolved to Scotland.  

SBSL will be paid by developers of new-build residential properties and will contribute towards funding Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme which will address unsafe cladding on buildings. 

Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT) quarterly statistics: Q3 2024/25

Key points

  • £11.2 million in Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT) was declared payable for the latest quarter, October to December 2024 (Q3, 2024/25). Total standard rate tonnage was 109,200 and total lower rate tonnage was 129,800.
  • The total SLfT declared due in Q3 of 2024/25 is the lowest of any quarter. This is consistent with the long-term trend for declining SLfT declared due, resulting from the decreasing tonnage of standard rate taxable waste.

Monthly Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) statistics: January 2025

Key points

  • Residential LBTT, excluding Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), was £29.0m in January 2025. This was 35% lower than in December 2024 (£44.6m) but 10% higher than in January 2024 (£26.4m).
  • Non-residential LBTT, excluding ADS, was £16.8m in January 2025. This was 36% lower than December 2024 (£26.3m) but 94% higher than January 2024 (£8.9m). Non-residential revenues are highly variable between months, due to the effect of small numbers of high value transactions.

Announcement of three new members co-opted to Revenue Scotland’s Board Committees

The appointment of Julie Hesketh-Laird and Stephen Ramsay will be to the Revenue Scotland’s Audit and Risk Committee. They will join the Committees' existing Board Members, Martin McEwen, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee (who will be stepping down from the Board in July 2025), Robert MacIntosh and Simon Cunningham. 

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