Annabelle Ewing, SNP

SNP PPC (Ochil and South Perthshire),
Annabelle Ewing

"Dear Fairer Tax Campaign,

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has a proud record of campaigning for fair taxation. We passionately believe that taxation should be based on the ability to pay, and have pursued that principle at every opportunity.

Unlike the London parties, the SNP can point to a record of achievement in Government when it comes to fair taxation. Since winning the Scottish Parliament election in 2007, the SNP have frozen the Council Tax every year for three years. The Council Tax is a fundamentally unfair tax – hitting those on low or fixed incomes, such as the elderly, particularly hard. By freezing the Council Tax the SNP has saved the ordinary tax payer £245 a year and lightened the burden on hard working families struggling with the effects of the economic downturn.

The SNP plan to go further – we want to scrap the unfair and discredited Council Tax altogether, replacing it with a local income tax that will be based on the ability to pay. Doing so would mean low and middle income people would be between £300 and £480 a year better off, and 90,000 people in Scotland, including 10,000 children, would be lifted out of relative poverty. In all, four out of five households will be better or no worse off.
Unfortunately, the SNP Government plans to introduce a fair method of local taxation was blocked in the Scottish Parliament by an unholy alliance of Labour and the Tories. This exposes, once again, how Labour have abandoned their commitment to fairness and equality – principles that only the SNP are now championing in Scotland. We will seek to apply these principles and our belief in fairness – already demonstrated through our approach to local taxation in Scotland – to the income tax system as a whole.
The reality is that the Scottish people cannot trust the London parties to deliver fair taxation. From the Poll Tax to the Council Tax, the London parties have consistently let the people of Scotland down. For Scotland to have the type of fair and equitable taxation system we need full control of taxation must be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

I trust that as apparent advocates of fair taxation for all that you would agree with the foregoing".

Yours sincerely,
Annabelle Ewing