Concern is spreading around boardrooms that further devolution of tax powers from Westminster to Holyrood will target the wealthy.
That could be not only Scotland’s business leaders, but the top managers and executives they need to employ to maintain their companies’ success.
If they are taxed more heavily than their counterparts south of the Border there is a real risk of that being where they will go and they will take their businesses with them.
From next April there will be a Scottish rate of income tax. The UK Treasury will deduct 10p from standard and upper rates of income tax in Scotland and give MSPs the power to decide how to raise cash.
There is anxiety that, armed with the new powers, the SNP Government would be tempted to pursue its austerity-ending agenda by raising more tax from the wealthy.
The implications of that strategy are fraught with danger for the business community and the wider Scottish economy.
If Scotland’s businesses feel they are being victimised by the tax change, how will they react?
A clue came in the run-up to last year’s Scottish referendum, when many revealed plans to move aspects of their operations south of the Border in the event of a vote for independence.
One of them was Dundee investment company Alliance Trust, which registered companies in England after warning of “uncertainty” over the independence referendum.
The independence uncertainty has been answered, at least for the time being, but has been replaced by uncertainty over Scottish income tax.
A post-general-election survey by accountancy firm EY revealed 60% of business leaders were concerned about retaining and recruiting staff if Scottish income tax rates were higher than in the rest of Britain.
Alliance Trust chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox said an extended period of uncertainty over Scottish tax changes “was not in the best interests of business or the economy as a whole”.
The Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland and the Scottish Retail Consortium have expressed similar worries.
The Scottish Government has tried to quell the concerns by pointing to its financial probity with present powers, and saying it would take the same approach with the new tax powers.
The high road to Scottish income tax could clearly be bumpy, and send Scottish businesses heading in the opposite direction.
For the journey to be smoother, and to avoid an exodus, surely the view of Scottish Chamber of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron should be heeded.
It is not enough for politicians north or south of the Border to implement change, she stated, then expect business and wider Scotland to have to deal with the consequences.
Far better that the business community is fully involved in the consultation process. She makes a good point.