Budget tax lift for business

BUSINESS will receive tax cuts worth £500m in next month's Budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown revealed today. In an unprecedented move, the Treasury unveiled details of the measures three weeks ahead of the 17 April Budget because of its unusually late timing.

The measures, which kick in on 1 April, came as no surprise as they were set out in last November's Pre-Budget Report. Key tax cuts will be made in the area of research and development, relief from capital gains tax and a tidying up of the treatment of sales of patents.

'Our energies must continue to be directed to promoting enterprise and investment and raising our country's productivity,' Brown said in a statement.

A new tax credit to boost R&D among larger companies will be introduced. This will benefit more than 1,500 firms spending more than £11bn. There will be a tax exemption for gains and losses on substantial shareholdings aimed at ensuring business decisions on corporate restructuring are made for commercial, rather than tax, reasons.