Scottish Fiscal Choices Post-Referendum : Powers, Purpose and Potential Impact

The Referendum on Scottish independence held on the 18th September, 2014, resulted in a significant majority vote (55% as against 45%) in favour of “no”. Accordingly, Scotland will remain a member of the U.K. for the foreseeable future.1 However, further changes in the Scottish fiscal system are inevitable. Firstly, some tax changes are already in the pipeline (for April 2015 and 2016) as a consequence of the provisions of the Scotland Act 2012. Secondly, all of the UK leaders of the main unionist parties committed, in the latter stages of the referendum campaign, to transferring significant additional powers to the Scottish Parliament in the event of a majority no vote.2 Lord Smith of Kelvin Chairs a Commission charged with rapidly generating a proposal for a new devolution settlement for Scotlan