SCOTTISH multi-millionaire Tom Hunter has been urged to correct his “highly misleading claim” that just 250 super-rich individuals pay 60% of all Scottish income tax.
Hunter, who is estimated to be worth around £700 million , made the “false” claim as he hit out at the Scottish Greens for proposing that the wealthiest in society should pay more in tax.
Speaking to Go Radio’s Business Show, the Ayrshire-born businessman claimed: “We can get 250 people in a room at Gleneagles who are paying 60% of all the income tax in Scotland, and then we’ve got Ross Greer saying ‘tax the rich, tax the rich’.”
Hunter further told Labour peer Willie Haughey: “What people like Ross don’t quite get, it’s a cheap headline, but what people like Ross don’t get is it’s the rich who pay the tax who pay for all his freebies.”
“We can get 250 people in a room at Gleneagles who are paying 60% of all the income tax in Scotland, and then we've got Ross Greer saying, “tax the rich”” On Sunday’s episode of The Go Radio Business Show, Sir Tom Hunter and Lord Willie Haughey reacted to the Sunday Times Rich… pic.twitter.com/AZf3Wv11eS
— Go Radio (@thisisgoradio) May 21, 2026
However, Hunter was called out by Laurie Macfarlane, the co-director of the Future Economy Scotland think tank, who pointed out the errors in his claims.
“It is simply not the case that 250 people pay 60% of all the income tax in Scotland,” Macfarlane said. “This is a false claim that should be corrected.”
He went on: “Scotland raises roughly £20 billion in income tax annually, collected from around 2.9 million taxpayers.
“If 250 people were paying 60% of that £20bn total, they would collectively need to pay around £12bn in income tax every year.
“This means that every individual would need to pay an average of £48m in income tax alone, each year. Under current tax rates, that would require taxable annual incomes of around £100m each.
“There are simply not 250 people living in Scotland earning £100m in taxable income. Scotland's wealthiest individuals hold a lot of wealth, but that’s not the same thing as receiving £100m taxable income.”
Macfarlane went on: “How do we know this? There are only around 30,000 top rate taxpayers in Scotland. We know they contribute around ~20% of all income tax revenue, which is around £4bn.
“If all 30,000 top-rate taxpayers only contribute 20% of revenue, how can just 250 people contribute 60%?”
A spokesperson for Hunter said that if he “is wrong and you can confirm/prove this he will apologise, however if he is not he would also like an apology”.
The National in response sent over the most recent UK Government statistics on tax paid in Scotland , covering 2023-24. These imply that around 35,000 people are in the top‑rate taxpayer category (about 1.2% of Scotland’s 2.9 million taxpayers).
Together they are liable for roughly £3.5bn of non-savings, non-dividend (NSND) income tax, or about 20.4% of all Scottish NSND income tax.
Hunter’s spokesperson did not respond.
The UK Government figures indicate it is accurate to say that around 500,000 Scottish taxpayers paying at least the higher rate are responsible for roughly 60–65% of all Scottish NSND income tax.
Elsewhere on Friday, Hunter told CBI Scotland’s annual lunch that he had held a private meeting with First Minister John Swinney on Tuesday and it had been “the best political meeting I’ve ever had from a business point of view”.
Our #CBIScotlandAnnualLunch26 in Edinburgh sponsored by @CMS_Scotland @GraylingUK was a fantastic success! Thanks @ScotGovFM @JohnSwinney, @SirTomHunter @THunterF Martin Pibworth @SSE and our 250 guests for supporting this event. pic.twitter.com/LbGE6JzQN4
— CBI Scotland (@CBI_Scotland) May 22, 2026
Swinney was also at the event, his first official engagement outside Holyrood since he was re-appointed First Minister, and told attendees that he would do “all that I can” to take Hunter’s proposals forward.
The SNP leader promised that the reform of planning and business rates as well as a focus on skills, which he said would be key to delivering economic growth over the next five years, the Daily Business reported .
Ahead of the event, CBI Scotland had said the First Minister was in a “race against time” to deliver economic growth amid a near £5bn budget black hole facing the country by the end of the decade.
The group published a five-point plan to “fire up” Scotland’s economy and put it “firmly back on a path to prosperity”.
CBI Scotland want:
- Business rates to be reformed.
- Planning systems to be reformed.
- Tax rates to be aligned with the rest of the UK.
- Large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Clyde Metro.
- A new national skills strategy.
Swinney said: “I am delighted to attend the CBI event today – my first formal engagement since being sworn in as First Minister – to outline that achieving higher levels of sustainable economic growth is foundational for my Government.
“So much else that we want to achieve, from further reducing child poverty to investing in modern, responsive, flexible and citizen-centred public services, depends on increasing our collective national wealth.
“The Cabinet and ministerial team that I have appointed sends a very clear signal of my intention in this area."
