Business: Agenda: Tax avoidance moves top red-box hit list

(Observer (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MAKING THE NEWS George limbers up for another crackdown As you may have read elsewhere, George Osborne has a big week coming up. On Wednesday he will deliver what must be the most eagerly unanticipated budget in decades - not least, presumably, by the chancellor himself, who after last year's debacle, will attempt to redefine the term tax relief by escaping from the chamber with his red box intact.

Those who claim to know about these things are expecting a dull speech as, firstly, Osborne cannot really risk another downgrade to his political credit rating; and secondly, the country's finances are still in such a pickle that he possesses few real options.

Still, the standard tactic in such situations is to launch an attack on tax avoidance - as Osborne did last year. Then he railed against dodgers holding expensive properties within "corporate envelopes" warning: "I will not hesitate to move swiftly, without notice and retrospectively if inappropriate ways around the new rules are found." Let's hope he's limbered up. Tax advisers have been peppering wealthy clients with notes suggesting clever ways of restructuring their property portfolios, while, as one expert puts it: "I don't use the word lightly, but this whole [clampdown] is pretty much a farce and will have cost a fortune to set up and operate". Budget preview, 38 City wants Greggs to start slicing shops Of all the measures George Osborne has been tempted to introduce this week, sticking VAT on freshly baked goods probably never attracted him.

You'll recall he tried that last year with a move dubbed the "pasty tax", leaving the bakery chain Greggs (among others) to claim that the move could have a "material impact" on its profits and force it to close some stores.

Osborne doesn't talk much about that aborted effort these days, but the issue of Greggs and the odd store closure does recur - as we will likely hear this week when Roger Whiteside, the chief executive who is just a month into the job, has his first stab at a major results statement.

He needs to come up with something approaching a strategy to make Greggs look more appetising to parts of the City. Top of the menu, according to analysts at Liberum, will be greater investment in the shops, cutting the rollout of new stores, and being more aggressive on closing underperforming outlets. Still, the early signs of Whiteside's ability to slash are not encouraging. The company's corporate website features a video of his predecessor, Ken McMeikan, gushing about ancient plans to add 600 new stores.

High street names looking for net gains Not long ago, retailers were preoccupied by acquiring more and more stores. It used to cause a right old stink (particularly with the supermarkets), but now that a glorified version of mail order is back in vogue this dash for more shops seems oddly quaint.

Tesco is so worried that internet shopping will make its vast warehouses even more unattractive places to shop that it spent pounds 50m last week in the hope that the prospect of a Giraffe burger (it's the brand, not a food scandal) will make a trip to the supermarket a family day out. If that shows how desperate things have become, we will get another reminder about the growing influence of internet retailing this week with two key clothing companies updating the City.

The biggest of these will be Next - which you may have noticed still possesses the odd store. That's fine, but the City is more interested in the website, a business perfected years ago with Next Directory and which prompted a Panmure Gordon upgrade last week.

Then comes pure internet retailer Asos, which is expected to continue impressing, as well as unveiling a US warehouse plus updates on new websites in Russia and China. It's a sign of how fashionable Asos has become that these projects are viewed as exciting. For other sectors, they'd be risky.

BLACKBERRY RIPE FOR A COMEBACK A few years back, the comedians Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield produced a sketch set in a greengrocer's. In a slight take-off of the classic Two Ronnies fork handles skit, Corbett walked in, placed a piece of fruit on the counter and delivered the line: "My blackberry is not working." The joke was really on the mobile-phone maker, as this was just about the time its woes started. But after years of trouble, it is threatening a comeback.

For those overwhelmed by the multimillion-dollar marketing onslaught that accompanied the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S4 last week, other smartphones are available. BlackBerry will take a crucial step in its attempt to rejoin that race on Friday when its Z10 makes its US debut.

The handset has been on sale in the UK since January and has sold well. There's just one snag: claims by RBC Capital Markets analysts that customers are returning them to the shops in "higher than normal" numbers. Corbett knows how that feels.

(c) 2013 Guardian Newspapers Limited.

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