Even in these times of high taxes there are a number of investments that do qualify for personal tax reliefs.

Pension contributions- can still be made with tax allowances given against the highest rate that you pay.Even 50%!  

However,make sure that you take advice as high earners reliefs are complicated.

Venture Capital Schemes(VCTs) & Enterprise Initiative Schemes(EISs)- can qualify for income tax relief and with EIS arrangements you may be able to defer your capital gains.

Risk levels vary considerably so make sure that the scheme is suitable for you.

Property Renovation Schemes-  allow you to offset against the highest rate of tax that you pay,so can be attractive.

These schemes are appealing but make sure that you understand any risks.

So with a variety of schemes you can create a portfolio that is right for you !!

The emergency  UK Budget was hailed as the most important in a generation.

The delivery, content and subsequent press reaction have all been as good as could have been expected given the perilous state of the public finances and moving forward the phrase - aggressive prudence - which we oft coined on this page to describe the conservatism (or even pessimism) of the Governor of the Bank of England, might now be adopted to describe the commitment of the Chancellor to deliver front end and aggressive spending cuts whilst providing support to the growth of the economy, largely through supporting the private sector.

The Chancellor announced the budget as tough but fair; an emergency Budget to deal decisively with debt which he claimed was the biggest risk in Europe. A risk he deemed so severe that he had even asked the Queen if he could freeze her wages (the civil list) this year.

The core themes of the budget were as follows: -

Pledge to balance the structural budget by 2015/16 -

Pledge a 4-1 split between spending cuts and tax rises Main spending cuts were in Welfare, where he pledged measures to save £11B in areas such as housing benefit, family tax credits and the freezing of child benefits for 3 years.

In addition to this the Chancellor highlighted £17B of cuts to the deficit and departmental spending in addition to around £3B savings in the servicing cost of debt due to the deficit reductions over the parliamentary term.

On the taxation side the Chancellor raised the VAT level (from January 4th 2011) to 20.0% from its current 17.5% and for higher rate tax payers also raised the level of CGT to 28% from 18% (with a modest rise in the entrepreneurs concession to £5m from its previous £2m).

A bank balance sheet levy (partially aimed at rewarding greater balance sheet stability, higher capital ratios and longer maturity debt) that was also introduced in concert with France and Germany, is forecast to raise a further £2B, however some of this will be offset by the reduction in Corporation tax which will be progressively lowered to 24% by the end of parliament.

In announcing some public sector disposals (namely NATS, student loan book and the Tote) as well as his proposal to seek a private sector injection into the Royal Mail, he also raised the national insurance threshold, doubled operational allowance for soldiers in Afghanistan but left taxes on Fuel, alcohol and tobacco unchanged. The impact of the budget on the new OBR forecasts were to lower the growth forecast for 2011 to +2.3% from +2.6% but to improve the outlook from 2013 onwards.

The reductions in the deficit itself are also substantial with the structural deficit being turned into a surplus by the end of the parliamentary term.

 The DMO announced straight away gilt sales reductions in accordance with the new forecasts.

The press reaction to the Budget has been very positive, to the extent that some reporters may have had to refer to their thesauri for 'positive' descriptive narrative!

Going forward commentators feel that the Chancellor has (in his own words) averted the sovereign risk threat and in doing so shown that the UK is open for business and attractive to foreign investment as the UK leads the way out of the fiscal crisis, leaving others, most notably the US and the Euro zone with an unclear and untimetabled plan for the revision of public sector efficacy.

 We will see!!

A huge rise in entrepreneurs relief now means that business owners can enjoy generous tax consessions when they sell their business.

The existing limit was raised by a considerable 150% to £5 million pounds.

Well done Chancellor !!