SNP plans for a local income tax will "inevitably" end up in court, a legal expert told MSPs today.

SNP plans for a local income tax will "inevitably" end up in court, a legal expert told MSPs today.

The proposed replacement for the council tax could even lead to the "nightmare scenario" of non-payment which accompanied the poll tax, Professor Alan Page today warned.

He was giving evidence before Holyrood's Local Government and Communities Committee on the issue which was a flagship commitment in the SNP's election victory last year.

"I think it's inevitable that it will end up in court," Prof Page told MSPs.

"This question of legality will cast a long shadow over the Bill until it's effectively settled one way or another.

"The nightmare scenario would be if you have a situation like the poll tax where people were refusing to pay because they say the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to do this.

"So, I think we need to get that question out of the way."

The Nationalists want to set the tax at three pence across the country to be collected by HMRC. This has prompted Treasury suggestions that a tax set and collected nationally is not local and is therefore reserved.

Speaking afterwards, the public law professor at Dundee University said that a legal challenge is likely to come because there will be some "losers" if the policy introduced.

"Nobody likes paying tax and obviously there will be people with a political interest in doing so as well," he said.

Prof Page said he did not have definitive view on the legality of the policy, adding this opinion was "just one among many".

But he added: "I think you could certainly construct a very good argument to the effect that it was within competence (of the Scottish Government.)"

The policy could go before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court of devolution, for "pre-assent scrutiny."

This could see it referred by Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini or another law officer, he said.

"The other possibility would be that, OK it does become law, nobody challenges it before it becomes law, and as soon as the tax demand drops through the letter box, you're off to court saying they don't have the power to do it."