The neoliberal project—Local taxation intervention in Scotland

Abstract

This paper is concerned with one of the central economic aspects of neoliberalism namely taxation. The shifting of the burden of taxation from the rich to the poor has been one of the raft of neoliberal economic reform policies. However, there has been a growing social movement in the UK against such a regressive form of taxation. This was led by a socialist political party in Scotland. 1 1 The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Up until the last Scottish General Election in 2007 the SSP had 6 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), but due to an internal split the SSP lost all its seats in the Scottish Parliament. However, many of the key elements outlined in the Scottish Service Tax (SST) Bill, proposed by the SSP, were included in the Scottish Nationalist Party's (SNP) Bill put before the Scottish Parliament in 2008 to replace the regressive Council Tax. This party devised a new taxation system which was specifically designed to reverse some of the economic inequalities brought about by the neoliberal turn. The new form of taxation, the Scottish Service Tax formed a bill (the Council Tax Abolition and Service Tax Introduction (Scotland) Bill) which was put before the Scottish Parliament in February 2006. This paper, taking a political-economy perspective, sets the possibilities presented by the bill within the context of neoliberalism.