So, Alistair Darling's first pre-Budget report. What are the chances of an attack on the inheritance tax? Surely he won't let the Tory upstart, George Osbourne, steal all his thunder...

Saying that, it will provide plenty of ammunition to the Tories if he were to offer up legislation which many would see as a copy-cat announcement to win back votes following the Conservative Party conference last week.

Oh, and private equity bosses (as if their industry hasn't got enough problems at the moment) are set to have some of their tax breaks taken away from them. Maybe they'll be downgrading to a Learjet...

You can follow all of the pre-Budget news on our sister website, Accountancy Age.