It is unlikely we will see a Budget speech fizzing with any significant changes, but clarity would be welcomed in a number of areas.

Low taxes are not anticipated, but neither are any major rises.

Inheritance tax reform is likely to remain a damp squib.

It used to be that inheritance tax was a tax on very wealthy people. Now it is getting its claws into people it was never supposed to target.

With Britain already preparing to host the London 2012 Olympics, the Chancellor may wish to bring in grants for aspiring athletes.

As house prices go up, more and more homebuyers find themselves burdened with a three per cent or four per cent stamp duty land tax charge.

Ideally, these thresholds would increase but the best hope is, probably, that at least the rates won't be increased.

The Chancellor could make a swift £700m if he increased the stamp duty on properties of £500,000 and over to five per cent from four per cent.

Investors would like to know whether tax relief on Venture Capital Trusts will continue at 40 per cent or a choppier 20 per cent.

And ISA savers are beginning to wonder what is over the 2010 horizon.

There may also be further comments on the Child Trust Fund.

A liberal dusting of enhancements to the research and development (R&D) regime would help enrich the UK's attractiveness as a place to house a business. A significant extension to the type of expenditure that qualifies R&D tax credit would help satisfy the hunger pains of many businesses - large and small.

And a medley of changes to help small business would be appetising. The abolition of the zero per cent starter rate and the non-corporate distribution rate announced in the Pre-Budget Report received a tepid response.

Finally, it could be argued the traditional 'sin taxes' are no longer a useful source for a chancellor to refill the Treasury reservoir.

Alcohol and fuel duties are likely to be frozen in real terms. With smoking in public places soon to be outlawed in England and Wales and smokers retreating out of doors, could we see an extra levy on patio heaters