6.The Act establishes a new tax, to be to be known as the Scottish building safety levy. While the Act uses the term “levy” for the new tax, there is not considered to be any substantive technical difference in meaning between “levy” and “tax” in the context of the devolved taxes. In addition, the Act itself also makes reference to “tax” and “taxpayer” where appropriate or where that is consistent with other legislation. The levy is chargeable on certain building control events, known as taxable building control events.
7.The levy follows the Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Building Safety) Order 2024(3) which amended the Scotland Act 1998 to add a new section 80O providing for a new devolved tax to be charged in respect of certain steps in the building control process. The devolved tax is to be charged for the purpose of meeting any building safety expenditure, that is for the purposes of improving the safety of persons in or about buildings in Scotland (in other words, inside or in the vicinity of buildings). An equivalent tax is provided for in England, with section 58 of the Building Safety Act 2022 allowing for the Secretary of State to make regulations introducing a levy for the purposes of meeting any building safety expenditure(4).
8.With the levy being a devolved tax, the Act gives Revenue Scotland responsibility for collection and management, on a similar basis to its role in relation to other devolved taxes, that is the Scottish landfill tax, the land and buildings transaction tax and the Scottish aggregates tax. As with those taxes, the Act makes use of powers in the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014(5), with the relevant parts of that Act applying to the levy established by the Act (in particular, Part 6 (tax returns, enquiries and assessments) and Part 7 (investigatory powers of Revenue Scotland).
9.The Act contains 54 sections and is in the following 7 Parts:
	Part 1 defines the levy as a tax charged on certain building control events in accordance with the Act and gives responsibility to Revenue Scotland to administer and collect the tax. It also contains an overview of the Act.
	Part 2 contains the key concepts underpinning the levy: it sets out the types of building control events in respect of which a levy may be imposed with reference to the defined terms “construction”, “conversion works” and “new residential unit”. Within the definition of “new residential unit” there is provision for “exempt new residential units”. This Part also provides for the person liable to pay the levy: the owner of the new residential unit when the application for the building control certificate or permission is made.
	Part 3 deals with the how the levy is to be calculated and used. The rate is an amount prescribed by the Scottish Ministers as it applies to each square metre of floorspace. A person calculates the amount of levy payable by taking the total number of building control events for which they are responsible and subtracting any reliefs and levy-free allowance before calculating the levy payable on each remaining building control event (these are known as a taxable building control event). The sum of the levy calculated on each taxable building control event is the person’s tax liability for an accounting period. Part 3 also deals with how the proceeds of the levy are to be used by the Scottish Ministers: for the purposes of improving the safety of persons in or about buildings in Scotland.
	Part 4 deals with administrative matters. It contains various provisions on administration, including regarding registration, returns, and special cases. It also governs information sharing with Revenue Scotland in support of the levy’s administration.
	Part 5 imposes penalties in relation to the levy, for instance for failure to make a return, failure to pay the levy, and failure to register for the levy. The penalties are similar to those for the other devolved taxes under Chapter 2 of Part 8 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014.
	Part 6 makes provision on what decisions by Revenue Scotland in relation to the levy can be reviewed or appealed.
	Part 7 contains general provisions about reporting, interpretation, regulation-making powers contained in the Act, Crown application, commencement and the short title of the Act. It also provides for the expiry of the legislation.
Overview of the Act