Moray MP Douglas Ross has received reassurances from the UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson MP in the House of Commons today that the UK government is seeking to mitigate against the Nat Tax, which sees service personnel based in Scotland paying more than if they were based anywhere else in the world, due to the new SNP tax policy.
Commenting, Scottish Conservative MP Douglas Ross who has campaigned against the imposition of the new SNP tax on MoD personnel based in Scotland, said: “I asked the Defence Secretary when the UK government will mitigate against the SNP’s ‘Nat Tax’ which unfairly affects service personnel in Moray based at Kinloss Barracks and RAF Lossiemouth and those stationed across Scotland.
“A lot of service personnel have raised this issue with me, as it is something they feel very strongly about. It is not fair that they will have to pay a penalty on their salary, when their colleagues serving elsewhere in the UK and across the world will effectively get more in their pay packets for doing the same job, because of where they live. I was pleased the Defence Secretary put on record that this is something he is seeking to put right and hopefully we should have confirmation within a matter of weeks.”
Replying to the question put to him by Douglas Ross MP in the House of Commons today, the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Defence said:
“I am certainly hoping to be able to report before the summer recess and I am very conscious that so much investment has been put into RAF Lossiemouth, that we don’t want people to be disincentivised from going there as a result of the Nat Tax that has been imposed on them.”