The hard choices that the new government said it faced were self-evident in its first budget on 30 October 2024. We saw the manifesto commitments to raise revenue via taxation be implemented in areas such as VAT on private school fees, abolishing the non-dom regime, carried interest (Private Equity) and the Energy Profits Levy. We also saw new taxes, some of which had been trialled and others which were unexpected, including increases in employers' NI, inheritance tax on pensions and agricultural property, increases in capital gains rates, increases in business asset disposal relief and stamp duty on second homes. To balance these additional liabilities against the manifesto's overriding objective to grow the economy, there was greater clarity on the business tax roadmap which includes capping corporation tax at 25% and maintaining the expensing policies. Whether the right balance has been struck between giving businesses enough certainty to have confidence to invest while maintaining flexibility to deal with the inevitable political and economic shocks can only be judged in hindsight. In the meantime, it is the tax advisers who are having to navigate an increasingly complex system to advise their clients on effectively managing and mitigating their tax burden, both in respect of the actual legislative changes and those that are signposted in the roadmap. It is trite but true to say some of these advisers will get it wrong while the new changes bed in.