SNP will not cut taxes for Scotland's highest earners
Nicola Sturgeon says the SNP will not cut taxes for Scotland's highest earners.
Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland's highest earners will not receive a tax cut proposed for the rest of the UK.
This move could raise ÂŁ1.2 billion more for public services north of the border.
The Scottish First Minister said the basic rate of tax would not rise at all under the SNP in the next Parliament.
She also announced that if the SNP win May's Holyrood election there will be no increase next year in either the higher 40p rate or the additional rate of 45p paid by those earning ÂŁ150,000 a year or more
But plans from Chancellor George Osborne to increase the threshold at which workers start paying the 40p rate from ÂŁ43,000 to ÂŁ45,000 in 2017-18, effectively a tax cut for the higher paid, will not be implemented in Scotland.
Instead the threshold will rise with inflation, to ÂŁ43,387.
This means Scots earning this amount will pay more in tax than people on the same salary south of the border.
She said: By adopting a different path to the UK Government we could generate more than ÂŁ1 billion of additional revenues, enabling us to protect the public services we all rely on.
We believe that this proposal is reasonable. It is balanced and it is fair.''