MoD critical of local tax plans

The SNP wants to change the way householders pay local taxes

The UK's armed forces minister has said he has "serious concerns" about Scottish Government plans for a local income tax.

Bob Ainsworth said it would have a "damaging" impact on service personnel.

In a letter to Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney, Mr Ainsworth said the plan was more unfair than the poll tax.

A spokesperson for Mr Swinney said the minister had made an inaccurate attack on its "fair" local income tax plan.

The Scottish Government added that it was absolutely committed to helping those in the armed services and their families.

It said there had been measures put in place to boost their entitlement to health and social care, education and training, transport and housing.

An army warrant officer's payments would increase from £84 a year to £1,570 Bob Ainsworth Armed Forces Minister

Under the SNP proposal, the tax would be set at 3p in the pound, replacing the current council tax system.

Military personnel living in service accommodation currently have their council tax paid by the Ministry of Defence, who take a deduction from their pay by way of a contribution.

The amount depends on the type of property - those who own or rent privately pay their own council tax.

The MoD said if the income tax were introduced it would lead to servicemen and women in Scotland, approximately 13,000, paying higher amounts.

Mr Ainsworth said: "I have extremely serious concerns over the replacement of council tax with a local income tax and the damaging impact it would have on service and MoD civilian personnel, especially those younger and lower paid personnel."

He claimed that the charges paid by some privates in single accommodation would rise from £33 a year to £600.

Bob Ainsworth: "I have extremely serious concerns"

Mr Ainsworth said: "An army warrant officer's payments would increase from £84 a year to £1,570 and a navy commander would have to pay £2,924 per annum instead of £113."

The minister went on: "We cannot quantify the cost of necessary changes to our payroll system without details of the system you are proposing to introduce.

"But it should be compared with the introduction of the poll tax, which required the establishment of a new administrative team.

"The money required to fund this new bureaucratic overhead would reduce the resources that we can get to frontline to support our armed forces."

A public consultation exercise into the local income tax proposal has now ended.

The government spokesperson said: "We will consider all the responses to our consultation, and bring forward our detailed proposals in due course for Scotland's Parliament to decide - not the MoD."