Scottish taxpayers, including SMEs, are unfamiliar with the changes to income tax that will be introduced next year.

A majority do not know they will pay a Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT) from April 2016, according to research conduced by the HMRC.

Only one of the 85 participants across a range of individual taxpayer customer groups knew about it. Many expressed surprise that a major change to income tax was happening, despite acres of newsprint and hours of airtime devoted to the issue.

The Scotland Act gives the Scottish government the ability to set its own rates of income tax within a 10% parameter of UK rates.

One issue that may have caught out many Scots is that they will have to pay if they are resident in Scotland but work south of the border.

The Scottish government has had the power to vary income tax by 3p in the pound but has never used it.

Among employers, awareness of the latest change varied, with larger organisations more aware than SMEs.

>> The introduction of the Scottish Rate of Income Tax – Communications Research, is available here