Welsh fiscal balance

"Estimates consistently find that Wales has a large and persistent fiscal deficit, funded by transfers from rUK.

"[1] Wales, as well as England, has a fiscal deficit since the public expenditure in both countries exceeds the tax revenue collected.

Welsh economist Ed Gareth Poole notes that fiscal transfers between wealthier and poorer parts of a sovereign state are not unusual.

[1] The figure has been criticised as misrepresentative of the true financial position that an independent Wales would experience.

Commentators contend that a sovereign Wales could raise additional revenues and reduce expenditure on items not directly connected to the Welsh economy; the Welsh economist John Ball suggests that an independent Welsh government could plug the budget shortfall by instituting land value tax (possibly raising £6 billion per year), tourist tax and "exploring some ways in which taxation revenue could be improved in a sovereign state".

[21] According to political scientist John Doyle of Dublin City University, the fiscal deficit in the "early days" of an independent Wales would be approximately £2.6bn.

[22] Think tank Melin Drafod suggests that an independent Wales could have a fiscal balance in surplus of £3 billion a year which could be used to fund public services.