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Scottish tax and spend figures due to be published Scottish tax and spend figures published
(about 1 hour later)
The Scottish government is due to publish the latest figures on taxation and spending in Scotland. The balance between spending and taxation in Scotland has shifted deeper into the red, according to the latest Scottish government figures.
The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report will reveal how big a deficit the country was running in the last financial year. In the last financial year there was a deficit of more than £12bn, according to the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) data.
Gers will contain estimates of spending by the Holyrood administration, as well as the share of Whitehall budgets received by Scotland. Including a share of oil and gas, the deficit rose to an 8.3% share of national income.
The figures will be seen as important for the debate on independence. The equivalent figure for the whole of the UK last year was 7.3%.
Voters in Scotland go to the polls on Thursday, 18 September, when they will be asked the "yes/no" question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
Gers is a guide to the health of Scotland's public finances, and a key pointer to the balance of taxation and spending if voters were to choose independence.
Oil and gas revenue
It also calculates taxation from people in Scotland, which in recent years has been similar to the UK, while spending per head has been higher.
BBC Scotland's business and economy editor Douglas Fraser said that the "one certainty" Gers would show was that Scotland would be in deficit.
He added in his latest blog: "The question that carries a lot of political weight is whether it will be a bigger deficit than the United Kingdom's."
Given its share of offshore oil and gas revenue, Scotland's deficit has been smaller than that of the UK as a whole.
However, the last financial year saw Britain's offshore tax fall from more than £11bn to £6.5bn.
The calculation is further complicated by a new, lower estimate, by HM Revenue and Customs, of the share of offshore tax it said should be allocated to Scotland.