Shock figures have revealed Aberdonians are paying around £3,000 more income tax than the Scottish average.
Workers in Aberdeen pay £7,585 of income tax every year, compared to the Scottish average of £4,517.
In comparison, those in Glasgow – Scotland’s largest city – paid an average of £3,650 over the same period.
And according to the report – prepared by the Scottish Local Government Partnership (SLGP) – the city’s 123,000 taxpayers contributed £933million to the Treasury in 2013/14, a rise of 8% on the previous year.
Aberdeen City Council – which is a member of the SLGP after breaking away from Cosla, the umbrella body for local authorities – revealed the findings of the report, which looked at the income tax paid per head in each local authority, compared to the Scottish average, last night.
Finance chief Willie Young claimed the figures showed the Scottish Government was shortchanging the Granite City.
In April, it emerged Aberdeen’s government grant was the lowest of Scotland’s 32 local authorities at around £330million for the 228,923 citizens – or around £1,440 per head.
Mr Young last night called for a “complete overhaul” of the income tax system ahead of plans to devolve a share of the tax to funding for councils.
“Aberdeen is the lowest funded local authority in Scotland yet these figures show that the people who live and work here pay almost 40% more in income tax than the Scottish average,” he said.
“The cat is out of the bag and Aberdeen is being taken for a ride in what is clearly the great SNP tax swindle.
“We need a complete rethink of the way local authorities are funded and I would call on the first minister to meet with SLGP as a matter of urgency to discuss these issues.
“Although we have yet to see the final details of what the first minster plans to do with local government funding, the new proposal suggests that the share of income tax receipts will still be distributed in accordance with a needs-based formula rather than what is actually raised locally.”
But a spokeswoman for the Scottish Government insisted there was a “strong record of investment” in the north-east and that local governments had always been treated “very fairly”.
However, the city’s improvement body, Aberdeen Inspired, echoed the calls for a “more proportionate” level of government funding.
Chief executive Gary Craig said: “Aberdeen has contributed to Scotland’s economy on a major scale for a sustained period and it would be logical for the region to benefit from that through a more proportionate distribution of central funding.”
Ross Thomson, Scottish Conservative MSP for the north-east, called for the government to meet with the SLGP.
He said: “It is time for the SNP to stop treating the SLGP as some kind of rebel group and instead start working on a better deal for these areas which are the drivers of the Scottish economy.”
But the Scottish Government spokeswoman said Holyrood would only negotiate with Cosla, and highlighted the millions of additional investment put into the north-east in recent years – such as the Aberdeen bypass, the Aberdeen-Inverness railway line upgrade and the City Region Deal.
“The Scottish Government has a strong record of investment in Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland,” she said.
“Despite ongoing cuts to our budget, the Scottish Government has always treated local government very fairly.
“As we have said previously, we will discuss the overall financial settlement with Cosla.
“The funding package for 2016-17 – amounting to over £10.3billion – was accepted by all 32 councils, and will be strengthened by our joint working to improve outcomes for local people through health and social care integration and by improving educational attainment. As part of the 2016-17 funding settlement for local government we provided Aberdeen City with an extra £14million over and above its core funding.”
