Independent Scotland could slash corporation tax like Ireland, suggests Humza Yousaf
dailyrecord.co.ukAn independent Scotland could slash corporation tax to make it like the Republic of Ireland, Humza Yousaf has suggested. The First Minister said during a Q&A session at the London School of Economics that he would "look to where we could be competitive around taxation".
The Republic of Ireland has a corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent. This is half of the UK rate of 25 per cent. It has helped attract big businesses like Google to the country.Alex Salmond was in favour of having low corporation tax when he was first minister, but Nicola Sturgeon was not.It comes soon after Yousaf said he did not support a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas companies who made bumper profits off increased energy prices.Yousaf said: "In terms of taxation, I would point you to a report by The Hunter Foundation that was released a number of months ago, where there was an idea which is at least worthy of exploration, which is looking at, for example, taxation around areas of competitive advantage for Scotland which would include, for example, our renewables sectors."We'll chart our own path, we'll carve our own way, but we'll certainly look towards other European countries."Ireland is certainly one of them.
Norway, Denmark, Austria, others to see where we can get good ideas from."When asked if that would include low corporation tax, he said: "We would certainly look to where we could be competitive around taxation, but I certainly won't write what our prospectus would be on day one in terms of taxation policy."To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, clickhere.
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