There is no set of official accounts that tells us how an independent Scotland’s economy would fare, nor what its finances would look like. Any attempt to analyse Scotland’s finances is instantly hampered by the fact that Scotland is not an independent nation and therefore does not have the same financial data, trade statistics, costs and revenue information available to work with that a normal independent country would have.

If Scotland were to become independent it would gain considerably more control over its tax system than it currently enjoys. This paper considers the consequences of independence for the optimal design of a new Scottish tax system, an analysis which would also be of some relevance for considering the consequences for tax design of independence of other smaller nations.

A conservative anslysis of prospects for taxation in an independent Scotland.

Commissioned by PCS, this joint work examines the economic impact of HMRC’s plans to close departments around Scotland and establish two regional offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

It is found that over 2,300 jobs could be lost due to these changes with an overall negative impact on GDP of £89 million.

The economic impact will be particularly magnified in local areas where the current HMRC departmental office employs a substantial proportion of the local workforce