The measures in today's UK Budget came as no surprise to anyone who has been reading the papers over the last few days. A staggered rise in corporation tax rates to a maximum of 25% from April 2023 for companies with profits of £250,000 or over, together with freezes on income tax thresholds (which seem innocuous, but are significant revenue raisers), IHT thresholds, the pensions lifetime allowance and the capital gains tax annual exempt amount, were all widely anticipated.

Nevertheless, the devil is often in the detail (or hidden in the Budget documents under an unassuming sub-heading). This year, the potential devil would appear to be the fairly anodyne statement of the government's intention to publish a Command Paper on tax policies and consultations on 23 March (ominously dubbed "tax day" by the Treasury), following up on its earlier announcement of this date on 18 February.

Will this paper herald a wide-ranging shake up of one of the CGT or the IHT regimes? Or both? A wealth tax seems unlikely, simply because the Chancellor has reportedly ruled out the introduction of such a tax. However, with the huge hole in the government's finances caused by the pandemic, nothing can be considered off-limits, so we will be paying close attention to the papers published on 23 March.

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