Lordly Scots lad taking in the tax people (5)
I believe the answer is:
laird
'lordly scots' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'lad taking in the tax people' is the wordplay.
'taking in' is an insertion indicator.
'the tax people' becomes 'IR' (abbreviation for Inland Revenue).
'lad' placed around 'ir' is 'LAIRD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for laird that I've seen before include "Big landowner" , "He's landed in Scotland" , "Man owning land" , "Scottish landowner" , "Scots landowner" .)