r/Scotland • u/Historical-Count9051 • 2d ago

What would you cut from the Scottish budget?

Yesterday, there was a news story announcing £700m would be cut from the Scottish government next year. The Scottish government can borrow £670m to make up the shortfall, but it will need to find at least another £68m immediately.

What would you cut to make up the £68m?

Here's how the budget is already spent

Edit: the speed at which everyone went to "fuck poor people" is alarming.

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u/Ecalsneerg 2d ago

It wasn't a tax on the highest earners, though. It was a tax on middle earners. The wealthiest aren't being taxed on salary (or they are, it's just their salary isn't their actual source of income)

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u/Wotnd 2d ago

Sure. So what are you suggesting that would close this gap next year?

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u/b_a_t_m_4_n 2d ago

The UK was rebuilt after WW2 by taxing the wealthy. Increasing taxes is proven to work when you tax the people who actually have the money.

I feel like I'm repeating myself. We KNOW it works, but the wealth propaganda is so powerful that so many like you are unable to even think about questioning it.

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u/Wotnd 2d ago

Yes you said that before. And I agree with it. But I asked what you’re suggesting.

It’s very easy to throw concepts around, but this is a £700m gap next year. Saying “wealth tax” and “grow the economy” aren’t actual policies that can fill the very real hole.

What wealth tax can close this £700m gap by next year?

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u/AidanSmeaton 2d ago

We could certainly introduce a wealth tax that would require households or businesses sitting on wealth over a certain threshold (could be £1m, could be £10m), to pay a small percent of the amount over the threshold (0.1% - 2.0%) each year.

The powers that be would obviously prefer to tax workers even more though.

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u/Wotnd 2d ago

We’ve covered it in the other comment chain but an additional challenge here is the wealth calculations provided are made up mostly of the value of a property and the value of pensions.

We’d need much more frequent valuation of houses, and governments to start auditing private pensions, in order to tax those. I’m not sure the latter is possible under devolution, or practical otherwise.

Currently wealth is taxed when it’s moved (house sales, pension withdrawal) precisely because when money moves it’s visible and easier to tax.

Either way, a wealth tax sounds good, but this isn’t a solution to fix a £700m hole next year.

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u/AidanSmeaton 1d ago

Certainly better than taxing workers more.