On the warpath

Gordon Brown's ninth pre-Budget report felt like the second budget of 2005, with a longer statement and more measures than we have come to expect at that time of year. It raised taxation by around £2bn a year, principally from the energy sector, but included plenty on the wider aspects of social and economic policy; housing, science and community volunteering. For the past 18 months, promoters of tax avoidance schemes (as defined) have been under an obligation to disclose those arrangements to the authorities. We saw in this budget a number of changes that responded directly to the intel...