This years Budget (to be announced on Wednesday this week) will be heavily scrutinised, as public finances are in a dire state, but with the election around the corner we expect that Alistair Darling will hide away the bad news, and his cuts are not expect to be enough to mend the public purse.

The good news is that we do not expect an increase in Income Tax, VAT, or National Insurance (these three taxes account for nearly three quarters of all tax revenue).  We are however likely to see an increase in CGT (Captial Gains Tax), and an increase in the duty on wine (that’s just wine, not beer or spirit duty).

Any increase in taxes will not take affect until after the election, however, the majors parties know that after the election, taxes will have to increase further, and there will be job losses in the public sector.  This election will only fool the public into thinking that we can get out of this mess painlessly – which is simply not true!