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In general, where there are those externalities, the best mechanisms for dealing with them are taxes and levies of various kinds rather than the instruments that are in our control.
Some companies are already thinking about how they might compensate employees if higher tax rates are levied in Scotland or, I guess, how they might pay employees less if taxes are lower in Scotland.
We are not devolving just income tax; there is also stamp duty, land tax and landfill tax and, we propose, an aggregates levy and air passenger duty—the way in which we do it is still under consideration.
I have kept our commitment to match the English poundage but I am applying a supplement to that poundage to a very small proportion of properties.In total, the retail levy would raise an estimated £30 million in income in 2011-12, of which more than three quarters would come from the largest supermarket chains.
The report also calls for the abolition of the transient visitor levy. That is not yet in force, and no local authority is even close to proposing its use.
What would we then do with the money? With a transient visitor levy, a consultation on which is under way, the challenges include, first, what we might want to spend the money on if we raise additional revenues, and, secondly, who will make the decisions.
We also need to address the environment that our kids grow up in, where they are often surrounded by high-fat, high-sugar, ultraprocessed foods, and to consider a levy on the multiple retailers and caterers that promote poor-quality food.
The national assessors have zero rated netting stations that are in a grade 3 area, so that they no longer pay a salmon levy. We have just announced this month an additional £500,000 for this coming financial year to accelerate research into the pressures on salmon stocks and to do substantive activities in-river to try to improve the situation.