EVERYONE in the South will be able to check out what Chancellor Gordon Brown has in his shopping trolley for Budget Day tomorrow, but will there be any real surprises

The Chancellor has already prepared us for many of the proposed tax changes in his November Green Budget.

Other measures - such as tightening up on social security fraud and tax avoidance - have been widely trailed in what is now standard practice for Gordon Brown.

From April 6, the basic rate of tax will fall from 23 per cent to 22 per cent.

MIRAS (mortgage interest relief at source) will be abolished, the married couple's allowance will end (except where one spouse is already 65) and national insurance contributions are to increase for all those earning more than £26,600.

Yet one of the key issues is what the Budget might do for e-commerce, according to Geoff Wolstenholme, tax partner at Ernst & Young's Southampton office.

"What many businesses don't realise is that tax legislation - both here and in all other countries has not even started to catch up with the issues that e-commerce presents.

Trying to run e-commerce in an unconnected tax world is a headache that entrepreneurs could well do without.''

On a broader front, Nick Caiger, tax partner with KPMG's Southampton office, said: "Despite the mass of paperwork backing up a host of taxation changes, we are expecting a broadly neutral budget backed by a series of measures to promote enterprise and investment.

"We can also expect increases in stamp duty and further measures against company cars - as well as hitting the usual targets of petrol, tobacco and alcohol."

Barry Watson, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCooper's, said: "With house prices rising, we think that the Chancellor will face the music with a rise in Stamp Duty.

"Betting Duty reforms and a widening of the ten per cent income tax band could also he high in the Budget Day charts.

"The Chancellor may be giving some thought to giving tax relief for private health contributions but it is more likely that he is thinking about ring-fencing a tax rise for spending on the NHS."

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