Last week Scotland entered the era of different rates of income tax relative to England. Our rates are more complex - a bad thing in itself - worse is that this complexity raises broadly a net nothing.

This change has been introduced under the banner of “fairness”. In order to be fair we are told that the tax system must be more “progressive”. Interesting word progressive, sounds upbeat, right, modern. Up to a point that’s not an unreasonable view - broader shoulders should bear a greater burden - but there’s an underlying darker agenda. For many on the left of politics the word progressive is a soundbite which masks the old socialist agenda of nailing those who are better off.

Note my use of the phrase “better off”. Not rich - no yachts, private jets or ability to disengage from normal society. Better off like the talented head teacher we hope will shape our child’s education. Better off like the gifted surgeon we want to heal our mother. Better off like the lawyer you might like your child to be. Better off like the entrepreneur who creates jobs and wealth to pay for public services.

Let’s look at the relative tax burden on somebody who earns average earnings and somebody who earns five times that level. With a small amount of rounding those figures are £25,000 and £125,000 respectively.

The person with an income of £25,000 pays income tax of roughly £2,600. The person on £125,000 pays £45,000. Is that fair? Possibly. The trouble is it’s only part of the story - there are many taxes which are effectively taxes on income.

Some of those extra taxes are only thinly disguised. National Insurance is the obvious example which raises the tax paid in my examples above to £4,600 and £51,200

Let’s not dwell on the tapering away of tax credits and child allowance for higher earners but focus on those taxes on income which are more cunningly disguised, LBTT for example. The average house price in Scotland is around £150,000 - broadly no LBTT payable at that level but at a price of £750,000 LBTT is almost £50,000. A person who buys a £750,000 house every 10 years pays an average of £5,000 LBTT every year and has nowhere to pay it except out of income - it’s an income tax.

The Green Party have decided that for the 2019 budget they will put a gun at the head of the SNP Government and demand an end to Council Tax as the price of their support. Why? - because it’s apparently not “Progressive” enough. The effect of their idea would mean a person living in a £750,000 house paying £6,000 more each year than the person living in a £150,000 house - it’s another tax on income.

Why not you might say? In isolation that’s fair enough but it’s the cumulative effect of all these Progressive taxes which does the damage. These two property taxes effectively add £11,000 a year to the annual tax bill of somebody earning £125,000 taking it to £63,700 - leaving £61,300 to spend.

Interestingly, a person who earns £100,000 a year and has a £600,000 house would on the same basis have £57,400 left to spend. The £125,000 earner sees less than £4,000 extra in their pocket for their extra £25,000 earnings - an effective marginal tax rate of over 84%.

The message is clear, don’t try, don’t aspire, don’t work hard, don’t want more for your family - the Government will take nearly all of it away. What a daft signal to send to those whose energy and talent we need to drive Scotland forward.

Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.