Nicola Sturgeon uses loophole to avoid higher income tax on £20,000 payment

Nicola Sturgeon uses loophole to avoid higher income tax on £20,000 payment

Nicola Sturgeon is under pressure to explain why she is exploiting a loophole to avoid the higher rates of income tax imposed on Scottish workers by the SNP.

The former first minister has updated her register of interests at Holyrood to state that she withdrew £20,000 from her company on June 30 this year.

She set up Nicola Sturgeon Ltd to handle her non-MSP earnings, including a £300,000 advance from the publisher of her recent memoir, Frankly.

But she took the payment in the form of a dividend, meaning that the money was not liable for the higher rates of income tax she and her successors as SNP first minister have levied on Scots’ wages.

The move saved her around £2,400 as dividends are taxed at lower rates by the Westminst

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