Reacting to the Scottish Government’s budget announcement today of increasing income tax thresholds, and a new ‘mansion tax’ for Scottish properties worth over £1m, RSM UK’s Regional Managing Partner for Scotland, Ross Stupart gives his view.

“While tax relief on business rates for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are welcome, this budget promised lots of spending while also moving income tax thresholds to enable 55% of Scotland’s workers to pay less income tax than their peers in the rest of the UK. This may be good news for Scottish businesses and workers, however it’s not clear where the revenue will be coming from to fund the many additional benefits and local government initiatives announced today.

“A report on the 2026-27 Scottish Budget published just days ago from the Fraser of Allander Institute indicated a growing funding gap, particularly for capital projects, and noted that the tax rises required to bridge the gap would be undeliverable, due to the low proportion of ‘higher earners’ in Scotland. Therefore, what we’d like to have seen from this budget was a focus on controlling spending and a drive towards increasing productivity in Scotland.”

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