Swinney: Councils can keep local income tax cash

Published Date: 02 October 2008 COUNCILS will be allowed to keep the money raised in their areas through a local income tax, finance secretary John Swinney said today. The Scottish Government is also "actively" considering whether to exempt students from their proposed new system, he told MSPs in Parliament today. He was speaking as MSPs debated how a local income tax would work. Mr Swinney said that the amou nt raised through the tax will "not be identical" to the amount raised in the council tax. "There would be a need to adjust local authority funding after the change to take account of the difference in order to ensure public services in each area are properly funded," he added. The detail of this remains to be agreed with Cosla. But he added: "Our intention is that the local income tax collected from residents in each... [read full story]