Budget 2011: view from the IIT

There were no real surprises in relation to indirect tax – but that in itself is unsurprising partly because the main taxes VAT and Customs Duties are European taxes so the opportunities for a Chancellor to make changes are very limited and partly because most VAT changes need not wait for the budget but can be made by Statutory Instrument during the course of the year.

Even the increases in alcohol and tobacco duties and the announced future increases in oil duties are down to Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling; all that George Osborne has done is let them go ahead (and in some cases deferred them).

Furthermore most of the other indirect taxes are taxes on consumption and the EU fundamental freedoms mean that allowing UK taxes to get too far out of line with those in elsewhere in Europe would encourage cross-border shopping and...