Accountants fear higher earners will come under a renewed attack when Alistair Darling delivers what is likely to be his last pre-budget report in the coming weeks.

They are betting he will reduce the starting point for the new 50% tax from £150,000 to £100,000 and clamp down on people becoming selfemployed or taking their pay in shares to beat the new rate.

Here, we look at 10 ways to save tax before the storm:

1 DOUBLE UP YOUR ISAS

Millions of over-fifties were able to shelter another £33 billion from the taxman on October 6 when their Isa limit rose by £3,000 to £10,200 — or £20,400 for a couple. Everyone aged 18 and over will be given the new limit from April 6.

It is generally more tax efficient to shelter bond funds rather than equity funds in an Isa because you save tax at 40% on the bond income rather than 32.5% on dividends.

Figures from Grant Thornton, the accountant, show that if a couple invested £20,400 in bond funds within their Isas for 10 years, they would end up with a pot of £269,418 compared with £240,879 outside the Isa wrapper, assuming they were higher-rate taxpayers and the funds grew by 5% a year.

If they drew an income of 5% a year in retirement, they would earn £13,471 gross from the Isa compared with £12,044 a year gross outside, or £7,226 after higher-rate tax.

2 VENTURE CAPITAL TRUSTS

Lakshmi Narain at Baker Tilly, the adviser, said venture capital trusts should be considered as a tax-efficient vehicle amid expectations of a capital gains tax (CGT) crackdown and the forthcoming 50% income tax band.

VCTs invest in unquoted and AIM-listed firms, and give tax-free capital gains as well as income (usually taxed at 32.5% for 40% taxpayers). They also attract initial tax relief at 30%, as long as they are held for five years. The maximum investment is £200,000 a year.

There are four VCTs open to subscription: Albion Development, Downing Protected Opportunities, Foresight 3 & 4 and Octopus Secure. Timothy James & Partners tips the Edge Performance and Ventus VCTs, both of which will open for fundraising in the next few weeks.

3 ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT SCHEMES

Enterprise Investment Schemes invest in firms typically involved in a particular sector or project, and give tax relief of 20% on up to £500,000 a year, if held for three years. Gains are tax-free — but not income — and investments fall outside your estate for inheritance tax purposes after two years.

EISs also allow you to defer CGT incurred in the previous three years or the subsequent 12 months — attractive if you paid at the old rate of 40% (in force until April 6, 2008). While you still have to pay CGT on EIS shares bought with tax-deferred funds, you could save 22% on past gains.

4 BOOST YOUR PENSION

Making the maximum pension fund contribution that qualifies for tax relief will reduce your overall tax bill.

You can pay in 100% of earnings, up to a maximum of £235,000 a year, though in the year before retirement there is no limit. However, if you earn more than £150,000, you cannot contribute more than your “normal” pattern, or £20,000, whichever is the higher.

5 INVESTMENT BONDS

Investment bonds are taxed internally at the 20% basic rate. However, up to 5% a year of the original investment (a minimum of £5,000, but no maximum) can be withdrawn for 20 years without any immediate tax liability.

And you can “roll up”, taking 3% income in one year and 7% the next. If you become a basic-rate or non-taxpayer when the bond matures, there is no further tax to pay.

6 CHARITABLE DONATIONS

Donations to charity receive income-tax relief. If you pay higher-rate tax, you could reduce your liability to the basic rate this way, said Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountant.

This is particularly effective when investment bonds mature. Here, returns are averaged out over the life of the bond. So, a bond bought for £900,000 with a return of £450,000 over 10 years will be treated as giving rise to a gain of £45,000. Any tax on this gain is multiplied by 10 to work out the tax due.

If you had no other income, you would fall into the higher-rate bracket. By making a charitable donation of £1,126 in the same year, you would reduce taxable income to £43,875 and push yourself into the lower bracket, saving £2,252 in tax.

7 GIFT ASSETS

Gifting income-producing assets to your spouse, where he or she is a lower-rate or non-taxpayer, could save high earners a tidy sum.

Say you had a portfolio of investment properties worth £500,000, which produced an income of 5% or £25,000 a year. If you were a high earner and held the investments in your own name, you would be liable for tax on the income of £12,500 from the 2010-11 tax year.

However, if you gifted the assets to a spouse who had no other income, the first £6,475 would be tax-free and the remainder taxed at 20% — so just £3,705, said Saffery Champness, the accountant. That equates to a £8,795 tax saving.

8 USE YOUR BUSINESS

If you have an unincorporated business, consider making your spouse a partner — and splitting profits with them. Ronnie Ludwig at Saffery Champness gives the example of a business generating £100,000 a year in profits. If there were one partner, the tax would be £29,930 after taking account of the personal allowance. However, if a husband and wife split the profits, the total tax would be just £19,860 — a £10,070 saving.

9 DEFER TAX-DEDUCTIBLE SPENDING

The self-employed and business people could defer spending on items that attract tax relief until next year, if their top rate of tax is going to rise to 50%. “Those making big purchases should think about doing do so before Vat goes from 15% to 17.5% on January 1,” said Leonie Kerswill at PWC.

10 BUY ART OR WINE

The taxman views art and wine as “wasting chattels” — goods that deteriorate in value — so they are not subject to CGT.

Darling’s possible runners

- Limit of £1m on inheritance tax exemptions for business and agricultural property

- Increase in capital gains tax (CGT) rate to 25%

- Reducing starting point for 50% income tax to £100,000 or increasing rate to 60%

- Introduction of six-year limit on carring forward trading losses to offset against gains

- Introduction of a wealth tax of 0.5% above £1m

- Deferral of the January Vat rise by one month

- Delay in the next fuel duty rise until after next year’s election

- Extension of the £175,000 stamp duty freeze for one year

SOURCE: MacIntyre Hudson