This year's budget, and more particularly the detailed press releases behind it, did not announce as many major changes and anti-avoidance provisions as in recent years.

However, because of the amount of detailed changes, it is unlikely to result in a short Finance Bill; over 100 pages of draft legislation have already been published for consultation.Individuals and trustsA 1% reduction in the basic rate of income tax to 24%, and increases in personal allowances of slightly above the rate of inflation, will give modest tax benefits to individual tax-payers.

The capital gains tax (CGT) annual exemption goes up by the rate of inflation to £6300 for individuals and £3150 for trusts, while the inheritance tax threshold is increased more significantly to £200,000.

Discretionary and accumulation trusts will pay income tax at 34%.Employers, employees and pensionsDeregulation and simplification are themes which run through this budget.

Changes are proposed to make compliance easier for employers and employees, particularly in view of the imminent introduction of self-assessment.

A statutory framework is to be introduced to facilitate annual voluntary settlements of income tax due in respect of certain benefits provided for employees, eg late-night taxis home.

Consultations are also to take place on new tax reliefs for travel and subsistence expenses of employees who work at different sites.

Modifications are also being made to the rules for taxing the value of living accommodation provided for employees.

These will mitigate the tax charge suffered where accommodation is used by more than one employee and also where the employee pays a commercial r ent for use of a property costing more than £75,000; legislation will also block certain avoidance arrangements.

The income tax and VAT scale charges for car fuel go up by 5%.

Calculation of the taxable proportion of mileage allowances paid to employees will be modified and calculation of the taxable benefit of interest-free loans to employees will be simplified.

The publication of the Greenbury report in the summer led to a government announcement that tax benefits available under approved discretionary share option schemes would be abolished, but only in respect of options granted after 17 July 1995.

The chancellor has now decided that a limited degree of relief will continue to be available for post-17 July options.

This will only apply where the value of the shares over which options are granted does not exceed £20,000 and the exercise price is not manifestly less than market value at the date of grant.

This relief will apply to options granted under existing schemes before royal assent to the Bill, provided the new conditions are satisfied.

Thereafter, a special deeming rule continues the approval of old schemes but subject to the new restrictions; new schemes will have to be adopted for options in excess of the new limits.

SAYE-related options schemes will in future have a lower minimum monthly contribution (£5) and a three-year minimum savings period.

In the case of profit-sharing schemes, the period after which shares can be extracted tax-free is also to be reduced from five to three years.

Other detailed amendments to share schemes include the removal of the potential capital gains charge on companies granting unapproved options.

This was a recommendation of the Law Society's revenue law committee.

The earnings 'cap' for personal pension contributions calculations goes up to £80,200.

There will be consultation on proposals to give members of occupational pension schemes the same degree of flexibility when taking pensions as is now available to holders of personal pension schemes.

Compensation for bad advice between April 1988 and June 1994 to those who switched from occupational pension schemes to personal pension schemes will not be taxable if paid into certain forms of approved scheme or contract.

Savings, insurance, interest and debtThe 25% withholding tax deducted from interest by banks, building societies, companies and others is to be reduced to 20%.

No further tax will be payable by individuals whose taxable income does not exceed the top of the basic rate band - £25,500 per annum.

The Finance Bill will include provisions to exempt from tax benefits received under mortgage protection policies, as announced in May 1995.

The exemption will also extend to other insured sickness, disability and unemployment benefits.

A radical change in the taxation treatment of corporate and government debt will take place in April 1996.

Broadly, companies will obtain relief for, and suffer tax on, interest and other profits and losses on debt issued or held by them.

The treatment of these items on revenue account will normally follow the company's accounting treatment.

One change from the proposals originally announced in July is that the new regime will not apply to individuals, however large their holdings, although they will be subject to tax as income on certain returns from discounted securities.BusinessesA number of provisions will help small and medium-sized businesses.

The small companies rate of corporation tax goes down to 24% to reflect the reduced basic rate.

Unquoted shares in trading compani es will now qualify for 100% relief from inheritance tax, even if they do not form part of a controlling holding.

Two minor improvements are to be made to IHT agricultural relief.Capital gains retirement relief will now be available at the age of 50 (previously 55).

Capital gains triggered by the disposal of qualifying corporate bonds (QCBs), eg loan notes issued in exchange for shares, are now eligible for reinvestment relief where the reinvestment is made within three years of the disposal of the QCBs.

The timing of payment of the tax charge on a loan made by a close company to a participator is to be deferred from the present 14 days to nine months after the end of the accounting period; if the loan has been repaid by then, no tax will be due.

VATThe compulsory registration threshold goes up to £47,000 annual turnover, with deregistration permitted below £45,000.

Monthly payments on account due from a business with an annual turnover in excess of £2 million will be halved.

A number of other provisions will change detailed rules - or give statutory force to extra-statutory concessions - affecting business gifts, penalties, intra-EU trade and zero-rating of parts of ships and aircraft.

Corporate groupsThe definition of 'international headquarters company' for foreign income dividend (FID) purposes is to be altered (in line with a recommendation of the Society's revenue law committee) to permit a 100% subsidiary of a non-UK parent company to qualify, however indirectly it is held by its ultimate parent.

Other modifications are to be made to these rules, one of the improvements ensuring that non-UK resident companies are not taxable when they receive FIDs.The Finance Bill will also include provisions designed to ensure that the Revenue can enforce the transfer-pricing legislation without having to make further assessments in cases where the original assessment is still under appeal.

The controlled foreign companies legislation is to be amended so that the acceptable distribution test for trading companies is the same as that for non-trading companies, ie it will apply by reference to 90% of the UK taxable profits, rather than 50% of foreign distributable profits.

There will also be consultation on the way in which the CFC legislation and the transfer-pricing legislation - both of which currently depend on Revenue directions - will work when self-assessment is introduced for companies.Concerning VAT, Customs will be given wide discretionary powers to counter avoidance of tax through the manipulation of the grouping rules.

Shares and securitiesThe proposed abolition of stamp duty on share transactions has been withdrawn.

Stamp duty or stamp duty reserve tax will continue to apply even after the Stock Exchange introduces its revised paperless dealing procedure (CREST).

With the introduction of the alternative investment market and the demise of the USM, the legislation on artificial transactions in securities will be amended to ensure that only dealings in 'listed' shares and securities will be capable of falling outside certain of the provisions of s.703 of the ICTA 1988.

Deregulation and simplificationMany of this year's changes are presented as deregulatory.

The imminent introduction of self-assessment is the reason for several of the above changes, and there will also be a number of amendments to compliance procedures.

Although there might be few signs of it in the next Finance Bill, legislation itself is to be simplified.

The chancellor has announced the continuation of the project begun earlier this y ear with a view to a possible re-writing of tax legislation in plain English.

This announcement comes a week after the tax law review committee of the Institute for Fiscal Studies made similar recommendations.

The revenue law committee of the Law Society very much supports moves to clarify legislation which, in many areas, is almost incomprehensible, and will participate fully in consultations by the Inland Revenue on this project.