The UK Government should follow the EU’s lead and undertake a full and comprehensive review of how best to tax online retailers to ensure they pay a fair share.
Such a tax system would ensure UK based activity was better defined and more strictly taxed without levying costs on overseas headquarters, since this could hurt Scottish export-firms if repeated overseas.
However, an effective online retail tax would need to be introduced internationally, but the U.K. Government’s isolationist Brexit agenda will only make this more difficult.
The SNP considers well designed, progressive tax proposals designed to make Scotland a fairer as well as more prosperous country – we will use the UK Budget process to advocate an independently designed financial transactions tax which could bring in over £7.4bn each year.
It Is unacceptable that suppliers dodge tax by falsely classifying goods as gifts on internet platforms – the SNP will use the UK Budget process to force online retailers to clamp down on this fraud or, otherwise, be liable for the lost tax themselves.
Many small retailers, the backbone of Scotland’s economy, are angry at what appears to be a double standards in the tax system,
With many high street shops facing difficult trading conditions, the Scottish Government is providing much needed support through its Small Business Bonus Scheme which has saved local firms almost £1.5 billion since 2008 with almost 104,000 recipients in 2017-18 alone.
The scheme has provided an average saving per property of over £2,000 and local pubs also benefit from Scotland’s competitive rates package which is becoming even more generous as the Scottish Government Growth Accelerator ensures businesses will see no bill rises for 12 months resulting from improvements or expansion of existing business property.