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 see how they can define each other.
'lad taking in the tax people' is the wordplay.
'taking in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the tax people' becomes 'ir' (abbreviation for Inland Revenue).
'lad' enclosing '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" .)