The Budget Small Print THE main Budget headlines were widely reported but there were, as always, some things hidden away in the small print that received little attention in the newspapers.

One such announcement was that the Government intends to look closely at complex partnership arrangements where one or more companies feature in the partnership structure.

Another was that there will be a clampdown on situations where money has been withdrawn from a company and repaid just before the date on which a company tax charge would arise, only to be withdrawn again shortly afterwards.

The Chancellor also proposes to make a change to the inheritance tax rules which will affect many business owners.

Business and agricultural assets can generally qualify for relief from inheritance tax (though the rules are complex).

A separate rule says that borrowings can be deducted from the value of the assets they are secured on for inheritance tax.

For this reason people have frequently been advised to secure borrowings on assets that are not exempt from inheritance tax rather than on business or agricultural assets (which are generally partly or completely exempt).

The Government sees this as having your cake and eating it and will now block this type of arrangement.

More generally, the Government is clearly aiming to intensify its attack on aggressive tax avoidance.

Continuing the work started by the last Government, ministers have negotiated a range of information exchange agreements that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

HMRC now has access to details of accounts held by UK residents in many countries around the world.

The latest agreement covers the Isle of Man and another recent agreement covered Switzerland.

Anyone who has money offshore and who has not declared it should regularise their affairs while they still can: waiting for HMRC to find out could be a very expensive option.

HMRC is employing increasingly sophisticated intelligence gathering techniques, including computer programmes that compare information from a variety of sources – such as banks, building societies and the Land Registry - with entries on tax returns. HMRC has also increased the number of people employed on investigation work.

The Government’s aim is clearly to clamp down hard on evasion and on what it sees as aggressive avoidance.

Fortunately there are still plenty ways to save tax that are both straightforward and perfectly legal.

Paul Aplin OBE is a tax partner with A C Mole & Sons and chairman of the Technical Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales Tax Faculty; you can follow him on Twitter @PaulAplinOnTax. He and fellow tax partners Amanda Gunter and Paul Kingdom can be contacted on 01823-624450.