Scottish Nationalists: Corporation Tax Cuts will Fund Jobs after Independence

The Scottish government has said that cutting corporation tax in an independent Scotland would lead to a jobs boom.

At an event in Dundee to launch a 200-page document outlining its economic plans, the ruling SNP highlighted what it would do if it won the "yes" vote in Scotland's independence referendum in September 2014.

The report, Building Security and Creating Opportunity: Economic Policy Choices in an Independent Scotland, came a day after the Institute for Fiscal Studies published its own report on the challenges facing an independent Scotland.

That had been far less optimistic than Scotland's finance minister John Swinney about an independent Scotland being successful if it voted "yes" in a referendum.

Swinney told the BBC Daily Politics programme that a Scottish government would be in a better economic position after independence to make decisions that are not possible in the current constitutional arrangement within the union.

"We believe that corporation tax in Scotland should be set at 3% lower than the rate in the rest of the United Kingdom so that would be projected to be at 18%. That would realise for Scotland 27,000 jobs, new jobs creating new taxes and contributing new taxes into the Scottish economy," said Swinney.

IFS Report

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that any Scottish government would face difficult choices in tax and spending if the referendum went its way.

The IFS report, Fiscal Sustainability of an Independent Scotland, said that policymakers would be forced to slash public spending by up to 8% or increase taxes. Oil revenues are likely to decline, it added.

"An independent Scotland would face even tougher choices than those faced by the UK over the longer term. In 2011-12, higher public spending per person in Scotland was more than matched by higher revenues from activity in the North Sea," said Gemma Tetlow, programme director at the IFS and an author of the report.

Scotland could face additional challenges in the form of an ageing population, shortfalls in productivity, higher borrowing costs and rising levels of public debt, added the report.