Budget analysis – The City

Speed Read: As was widely anticipated, the Budget did not contain much that was new. Although there was the usual raft of anti-avoidance, the success of the disclosure regime and the 'new relationship with business' meant that the budget is much less a game of 'catch up' than it used to be. There was welcome news that clarificatory legislation on the corporation tax treatment of capital distributions is to be enacted with retrospective effect. Buoyed by the introduction of more general principles-based legislation in relation to disguised interest and income transfers, the Government proposed the same approach to the financial products area.