The Budget is upon us once again. But after moves in recent years that have infuriated small businesses, the consensus at the time Recruiter went to press was that this year’s would be pretty undramatic.

“The government is unlikely to do anything that is going to impact on the electorate with a general election on the horizon,” said Nick Hilton, a partner at accountancy firm Moore Stephens. “I don’t think there’s anything in there that will hurt recruiters more than anyone else.”

But one area that may affect recruiters is IR591, the threat in the pre-Budget report to ensure that “the right amount of tax” will be paid by owner-managers on their profits. This could also hurt IT contractors who work through one-man limited firms.

But Bill Kirwan, director of HR at PricewaterhouseCoopers, believes contractors should be more concerned about the tax legislation IR35. “The danger is less through anti-avoidance measures than from auditing,” he says. “We haven’t yet seen a lot of audit activity on IR35, and I regularly come across situations that haven’t really changed since it came in.”

Other possible changes to watch out for include an increase in the minimum wage to £4.85, and tax concessions to high street firms for providing disabled access.