Taxman can refuse to collect new Scottish taxes The pro-separation referendum campaign launched last Friday with a series of Left-wing speeches promising a fairer Scotland funded by higher taxes on the wealthy. Giving evidence to Holyrood's finance committee yesterday, HMRC said it has "freedom" to decide whether to collect new taxes created by the SNP under the Scotland Act's powers. Sarah Walker, deputy director and head of its devolution team, said: "It will depend very much on whether it's a look-a-like tax, whether it looks very much like an existing UK tax. That would be relatively easy for us to do. If they want to have something that has a different framework or different rates, then we would have to look at the details of what they want it to do. She confirmed that the taxman could refuse to collect a replacement for Stamp Duty if SNP ministers decide on a "radically different" replacement. A precedent was set in Northern Ireland where a plastic bag tax was proposed that the HMRC said it would not operate, she said. Meanwhile, CBI Scotland listed for MPs the "gaps in knowledge" that must be filled by the SNP so its members know "what the business environment would look like in the event of independence." In a submission to the committee's inquiry into Scottish separation, the group recognised there were some issues where "full clarity" will only happen after secession negotiations were completed between UK and SNP ministers. "However for many other aspects that clarity and certainty could and ought to be provided well in advance of the referendum, in order to inform a productive public debate but also to allow businesses and others to plan ahead," it added. The dozens of questions they listed included queries over financial regulation, work permits for immigrants and how a separate Scotland could control inflation if the Bank of England continued to set interest rates.