The Scottish Government has reached its limits on income tax, the Finance Secretary has said.
Shona Robison defended the SNP’s tax hikes on workers but signalled the policy had been exhausted.
During a fringe event at the party’s conference in Aberdeen, Ms Robison – who is leaving Holyrood next year – also suggested Scotland has too many public sector bodies.
Earlier this month, First Minister John Swinney refused to rule out further tax rises at the next budget when quizzed by the Conservatives.
Ms Robison previously ruled any changes to income tax before the election.
On Sunday, she said her Government had taken the “bold” decision to raise it in order to protect public services, which she said benefited in an extra £1.7 billion through tax rises.
“But I’m going to be honest with you, we have, I think, reached the limits of what we can do around income tax and therefore we need to look beyond that,” she added.
In Scotland, people begin to pay more income tax at around £30,000. Someone earning £50,000 per year would pay around £1,520 more a year compared to those in England, with that rising to £5,200 for those earning £125,000.
Those earning under £30,000 pay slightly less tax than their peers south of the border.
Ms Robison encouraged the next Scottish government – which will be formed after the May election – to be “really, really bold” with public service reform.
She added: “I would gently point out that we have 133 public bodies. We could have a whole fringe meeting just to discuss that.
“My point of view is simply we should ask, what does Scotland need in our public sector landscape?
“That is the question we should start with and then work from there, rather than trimming around the edges.
“These bodies have grown over the years for a variety of reasons but we need to look at the landscape and it needs to be reformed in a way that starts with ‘what do we need’?”
Both the Tories and Labour have proposed cutting Scotland’s public sector bodies in a bid to reduce bureaucracy and save money, while the Scottish Government has said it will cut the civil service, which has grown rapidly since Covid.
