According to the tax authority’s annual reports and accounts, it raised over £630m in LBTT and SLfT for the Scottish Consolidated Fund during 2016-17, an increase of £61m compared to 2015-16.

The total tax take was £633m, made up of just under £484m in LBTT, £149m in SLfT and £342,000 in penalties and interest.

The combined total of LBTT and SLfT collected since Revenue Scotland began operating also exceeded £1bn.

Keith Nicholson, Revenue Scotland chairman, said: ‘The total tax collected in 2016-17 shows an increase of over 10% compared to our first operating year, contributing even more to Scotland’s public services.

‘An important milestone was also reached, with the amount of tax collected by Revenue Scotland in its first two years of operating exceeding £1bn. The total transferred to the Scottish Consolidated Fund between 1 April 2015, when operations began, and 31 March 2017 was £1.15bn.’

However, in its analysis CIOT noted that despite an increase in the total amount of revenue generated from LBTT, the £484m generated was £54.4m less than the Scottish government’s own forecasts for the amount of tax it hoped to generate, contained in its 2016/17 budget.

Meanwhile, receipts generated from SLfT outperformed forecasts, generating £149m - £16m more than forecast.

During the reporting period, Revenue Scotland’s annual operating costs, as a percentage of total tax collected, decreased from 0.9% in 2015-16 to 0.7%.

The reports also show the tax authority increased the number of tax returns submitted online from 98.1% in 2015-16 to 98.8% in 2016-17. More than 93% of payments were made on time, up from 92.6%.

Average call waiting times were reduced from 10.2 seconds in 2015-16 to 6.2 seconds in 2016-17, and there were improvements in the response rates to written communication, with the percentage responded to within 10 days increasing from 95.6% in 2015-16 to 97.9% in 2016-17.

Commenting on the report, Moira Kelly, chair of the CIOT Scotland technical committee, said: ‘There has been an almost across the board upturn in the organisation’s performance, with more tax collected, increased compliance and enforcement activity and more and more people submitting their returns online and on time.

‘But while Revenue Scotland has overseen increases in the overall amount of LBTT and SLfT generated, it’s impossible not to note the discrepancies between the actual amount of LBTT generated and the amount that was initially forecasted by Scottish Ministers in the budget for 2016/17.

‘Forecasting is – as we often hear – a very inexact science, but these figures are likely to fuel further concerns relating to the vulnerability of LBTT receipts and the potential impact that this may have on future Scottish budgets.’

The institute also noted almost across the board improvements in Revenue Scotland’s key performance indicators and that steps were being taken to address concerns relating to employee engagement and staff sickness/absence.

Revenue Scotland will assume responsibility for administering Scotland’s new Air Departure Tax when it is introduced on 1 April 2018.

Revenue Scotland’s annual reports and accounts are available here.

Report by Pat Sweet