"Tax is higher in Scotland" is repeated so often that it is treated as a flat fact. It is not. Scotland has six income tax bands where England, Wales and Northern Ireland have three, and the lower ones are cheaper. Below £33,500 a Scottish taxpayer keeps slightly more.
The advantage is small — about £40 a year — because the starter rate is only one percentage point below the basic rate and it applies to a narrow slice of income. But it is real, and it means the honest answer to "am I worse off in Scotland" depends entirely on what you earn.
| Salary | Difference | |
|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | +£40 | better off |
| £25,000 | +£40 | better off |
| £30,000 | +£35 | better off |
| £33,500 | −£0 | worse off |
| £40,000 | −£65 | worse off |
| £50,000 | −£1,496 | worse off |
| £75,000 | −£2,050 | worse off |
| £100,000 | −£3,300 | worse off |
| £150,000 | −£5,931 | worse off |
Where the gap comes from
Above the crossover, three things compound. Scotland's intermediate rate is 21% where the rest of the UK charges 20%. Its higher rate of 42% starts at £43,663, well below the £50,270 threshold elsewhere — so a band of income around £45,000 is taxed at 42% in Scotland and 20% next door. And at the top, Scotland charges 48% where the rest of the UK charges 45%.
The gap therefore widens with income rather than staying fixed: a few tens of pounds at £30,000, roughly £1,496 at £50,000, and about £5,931 at £150,000.
The bit that is usually left out
This compares income tax and National Insurance, and nothing else. It is not an argument about whether Scottish taxpayers get more for the money — tuition, prescriptions and personal care are all funded differently — and this site takes no position on that. It is only the arithmetic of the payslip.
Both figures for any salary are on the take-home calculator: switch the region and watch the numbers move.