... they don't do maths.
From some some special pleading by the Scottish Retail Consortium aka Scottish Commercial Landlords Consortium:
3. The retail industry contributes around £2 billion in taxes per year in Scotland across the top five taxes of VAT, income tax, national insurance, business rates and corporation tax. Of the £2 billion, retail contributed close to £700 million in business rates...
5. In 2005, business rates made up around one-third of all taxes borne by retailers. By 2014 this had grown to nearly 50 per cent.
Have I missed something or are they deliberately lying?
They pay £2,000 million in taxes, of which £700 million is Business Rates. That means Business Rates make up 35 per cent of their total tax bill, not 50 per cent. So the share has gone up from "around one-third" to 35 per cent, in other words "not at all".
And I find it baffling that they focus so much on Business Rates. Their single largest tax bill is going to be VAT. Total UK VAT receipts are over £100 billion a year; total Business Rates receipts under £30 billion. And if it's not VAT, then it will be PAYE. Business Rates will be a distant third and corporation tax will be an even more distant fourth.
(H/t Thomas Hall and Lola).