This second November budget, which has produced what looks a rather uninteresting package, will again translate itself into a vast Finance Bill.

This is becoming quite an intolerable burden on advisers.

No longer is it possible to be able to say that one is a tax specialist as the individual areas, such as VAT, have grown so huge.

It is therefore with some trepidation that one tries to introduce a summary of 45 Inland Revenue press releases and 27 Customs & Excise press releases.For next tax year, allowances and reliefs have largely risen in line with the rate of inflation but the elderly have received a little more, partly to cushion the impact of the rise in VAT on heating.However, there is an in-built tax rise on a number of reliefs, particularly the married couples' relief, the widows' bereavement relief and the additional personal allowance, where the relief which was restricted to a maximum of 20% in this tax year will be restricted to 15% next tax year.

This restriction also applies to the value of the relief on mortgage interest on the £30,000 loan.

This was not mentioned in the budget but is built into the existing tax legislation.The Finance Bill will include a large number of clauses which follow up last year's legislation, introducing the self-assessment regime for the tax year 1996/97 and onwards.

Much of this will be geared towards restricting tax avoidance opportunities but the changes will affect all those in private practice on business profits.

It means that thought should be given now to the effect of these changes and, in particular, the transitional rules.Self-assessment is not, however, limited to the assessment of business profits and two changes in particular are announced in this Budget.

The first is that there is to be a change in the way in which income from property is taxed.At present income from property is taxed under sched A, and also under sched D case VI for furnished lettings.

The rules are going to be changed from 6 April 1995 and it will be necessary to look at the Finance Bill provisions to see how the transition will take place.However, the general principle is to simplify a number of the rules which have been very complex and to make the assessment of tax under the revised sched A more akin to the assessment of tax on a trade under sched D case I.

Deductions and allowances were made dependent on the type of the leas e and the type of expenditure.

The restrictions were sometimes arbitrary and confusing.Now, the rules for computing liability will be made similar to that of a 'trade'.

Thus, for example, interest on borrowings to acquire property will become easier.

In general terms, deductions will be allowed if the expenditure is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the letting 'business'.Another practical point which those involved in the administration of estates will need to watch is that with effect from 6 April 1995, income from the estates of deceased persons will be taxed, in the hands of beneficiaries, in the year of receipt.At present, the rules provide that income should be apportioned on a daily basis across the period of the administration of the estate and then allocated to those years of assessment in the hands of the beneficiary.

The new rules will affect estates irrespective of the date of death of the deceased.But there may be traps.

For example, in the case of the estate of a person who died, say in 1992, it may be that for various reasons no income has been distributed to the beneficiaries.

A beneficiary who receives a distribution on 4 April 1995 will have this spread across a number of tax years and may be a happier person than one who finds that a distribution on 6 April 1995 means the whole of the sum received is taxed in the tax year 1995/96.A sizeable distribution in the next tax year may well throw a beneficiary into higher rates of tax.

Therefore, all estates in the course of administration should be reviewed with a view to distributing income before the end of this tax year.There were no changes on inheritance tax except that the threshold rises for the first time since 1992.

The nil rate band becomes £154,000 from £150,000 but this has been fixed as applying for next tax year.

It does not affect estates of those who die before 5 April 1995.

In those cases, the tax free band will remain at £150,000.In cases where a settlor or spouse benefits from a trust, the settlor is taxed on the income of the trust and that rule is not changed.

A simpler system which largely has the same effect will be introduced.

Settlors will still be taxed if they have retained any benefit whatsoever from the trust.

The settlors will also be taxed on income or capital distributions to the extent of accumulated income paid to an infant unmarried child of a settlor.However, one change relates to where loans have been made between the settlor and the trustees.

The previous tax charge had been on the payment of the loan or the repayment of the loan as appropriate to the extent that there was undistributed income.

Now, the settlor will be taxed a notional income benefit using a statutory rate of interest on the loan to or from the settlor or spouse.It will be necessary to review all cases in the light of the Finance Bill's exact terms where there are settlors with loans outstanding which may have been used, for example, to buy a house, and where, for next tax year onwards, there may be a new tax charge.The chancellor has also taken further steps in helping the finance of small or growing companies.

Last year's budget proposed legislation to allow the setting up of venture capital trusts, and the consultative process since then has produced some amendments.

These trusts have to be floated on the Stock Exchange; whether they are going to be attractive to managers remains to be seen.

However, it would seem that a total potential tax relief of up to 60% (based on a 20% income tax relief on the investment of up to £100, 000 in any tax year, exemption from income tax on any dividends and freedom from capital gains tax on most disposals) makes this attractive for investors.Changes to the enterprise investment scheme (son of BES) will also make it more attractive and, it is welcome that the restriction on the relief, which would have arisen when 50% of a company's assets become land and buildings, is withdrawn.The amendments reflect that the legislation was not very attractive as originally drawn, as pointed out at the time by the Law Society's revenue law committee.

Perhaps one of the problems arising out of the volume of tax legislation is that so little of it does get proper consideration.The real difficulty is that encouraging business angels into the support of business on the back of a tax break, where the investor will want to see a return on his or her money in the medium term (five years is a popular government period before money can be taken out), is to confuse a need which exists in the market for long-term finance.

The measures taken so far are only steps in the process of providing a complete coherent system of help to this sector of the business community.