A VIGOROUS approach to combating tax avoidance was promised by the Finance Secretary as he published a Bill to establish a new collection authority.
The Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Bill sets out the legal framework for collecting two new devolved taxes and an "anti-avoidance rule", John Swinney said.
"This Government will take a distinctly Scottish approach to taxation, including a vigorous approach to combating tax avoidance," he said."We firmly believe decisions about Scotland's taxes should be taken by the people of Scotland.
"The Bill and the establishment of Revenue Scotland are important steps in taking greater responsibility for setting and collecting taxes in Scotland."
The authority will collect tax on land and buildings transactions and the planned Scottish landfill tax.
Both will be devolved as part of the Scotland Act from April 2015.
It is etsimated the taxes will raise about £400 million a year in Scotland.
Revenue Scotland will not collect the new Scottish rate of income tax, which will be the responsibility of HM Revenue and Customs from April 2016.
The anti-avoidance rule aims to go further than the UK system, which deals with tax abuse, by tackling artificial arrangements designed to get a tax advantage.
The authority will build a firm foundation for taxes in Scotland, according to Mr Swinney.
"In Revenue Scotland we will build a tax authority and a 21st century tax system that meets the needs of our businesses and citizens," he said.
"That system will also provide a foundation for future arrangements where we expect Scotland to collect a much wider range of taxes."
Independence would also help create a "simpler" overall tax system, he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article