ALMOST 40,000 workers in Scotland are paying lower rates of income tax that should only apply down south.
A National Audit Office report has revealed 37,324 — or 1.3 per cent — of employees were wrongly assigned to the Westminster regime last year.
Workers in England on over £27,850 pay less than their Scots counterparts, with the gap widening as earnings grow.
Auditors said the Scottish Government has now “requested data” on the staff and firms involved from HM Revenue and Customs in a bid to claw back the cash.
Tory MSP Liz Smith warned last night: “Tens of thousands of Scots are in for a nasty New Year shock when they are put on the correct tax code and discover how much more they are having to pay to plug the huge black hole in the SNP Government’s finances.”
The report said HMRC found 37,324 cases last January where a person’s tax code did not have an ‘S’ prefix to signpost them being a Scottish taxpayer.
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We told last month how Police Scotland’s new chief constable Jo Farrell was caught out being still registered to pay lower income tax by remaining registered in England.
She was asked by Tory MSP Russell Findlay about her tax affairs at Holyrood — and wrongly said she was paying the higher Scottish rates.
Ms Farrell’s salary is £248,724, meaning she would have saved almost £9,000 in tax if she paid the English rate.
But she later wrote to MSPs to say she had been mistaken and had now switched to the Scots rate after checking her tax code issue with the force.
