SNP Government staff choose to live outside Scotland to avoid high taxes

SNP Government staff choose to live outside Scotland to avoid high taxes While ordinary Scots are punished by the highest income tax rates in the UK, civil servants are choosing to base themselves south of the border and abroad to avoid this. View 3 Images Civil servants working for the Scottish Government are very costly to the public purse The Scottish Government has been blasted after new figures revealed that nearly 200 civil servants have chosen to live outside Scotland – thus avoiding the SNP's high taxes. We previously told how there has been a surge in the number of NHS employees who pick up a pay check in Scotland but actually live south of the border. ‌ While the number of bureaucrats living elsewhere has dropped over the last few years, it has remained steady. Scotland is the highest-taxed region of the UK, with all those earning over about £35,000 paying more into the public purse than their counterparts south of the border. ‌ John Swinney and the SNP have repeatedly insisted that this is part of a "social contract" where they pay more income tax to be able to enjoy freebies like free university tuition and free buses for under-22s and over-60s. Recruiters have claimed that it is making it harder to recruit high earners, while Scots are moving away or using pension or dividend schemes to avoid being trapped in a higher tax bracket. ‌ According to a freedom of information request, a total of 178 civil servants are actually based abroad while working for the Scottish Government. England is where they are mostly likely to live, with 141 reporting this country as their main residence in 2025/26, down from 145 in 2022/23. Liz Truss says Nicola Sturgeon destroyed Scotland and mocks her over campervan and London move READ MORE : John Swinney warned huge budget cuts 'loom' as SNP spend big on ministerial junkets READ MORE : Northern Ireland is next with 13, while Wales has two Scots bureaucrats staying there. A row broke out over the SNP Executive's working from home guidance as more than 9,000 civil servants were asked to spend at least 40% of their working week in the office from October 2025 but this was not properly enforced, meaning the main HQ Victoria Quay was left mostly empty, with an average daily attendance of just 12%. In terms of civil servants living abroad, these include those employed at "international offices" with nine of these dotted around the world, mostly based in already existing embassies. Dubbed "pretendy embassies" by rivals, they employ both country-based staff as well as relocating officials from Scotland. ‌ View 3 Images Inside the Scottish Government's office in Brussels. The government aggregated the countries together to protect confidentiality in the freedom of information request. France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Isle of Man had seven civil servants living there, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark three and Poland had seven, while the rest of the world had one. Critics blasted the amount of workers who chose to live abroad while being employed by the SNP Executive. Alastair Cameron, chairman of Scotland in Union, said: 'The Scottish Government has very deliberately made Scotland a more expensive and complicated place to live from a taxation perspective. ‌ View 3 Images Alastair Cameron, founder of Scotland in Union. 'Not only has this proved counter-productive financially, it has also resulted in numerous warnings about wealth creation and opportunities north of the border. Now we learn many of its own staff prefer the tax regime of England and Wales, despite receiving pay from the Scottish Government HQ. This in itself should tell the SNP everything it needs to know about its foolish and ill-judged high-tax approach.' Anyone earning about £35,000 living in Scotland are forced to pay more into the public purse than their English counterparts, with this rising incrementally in every tax band. A worker in Scotland on a salary of £100,000 would save £3,300 in income tax a year by living elsewhere in the UK, rising to almost £6,000 for someone on £150,000 and nearly £7,500 for someone on £200,000. Article continues below The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.