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Richard Lambert has renewed his attack on the Government over proposed capital gains tax reforms.
And the CBI chairman has been broadly backed by those in the tax profession.
Mr Lambert told Radio 4's Today programme that the Chancellor's failure to reveal details of his plans has left British business in a 'state of complete confusion'.
His remarks were endorsed by Penny Bates, private tax partner at Menzies.
She said that the 'continued level of uncertainty is becoming increasingly annoying to all those in business and professional advisers. We still do not know the detail of the new proposals, or even if they will be introduced in April.'
Ms Bates added that she believed the Chancellor's procrastination over the CGT issue had 'led to business people making decisions biased more towards mitigating tax than would normally be the case.
'At Menzies, we are seeing an increase in client focus regarding management buyouts and business disposals, with each transaction chasing a 5 April 2008 deadline to exploit the current 10% effective tax rate.'
Tax partner Peter Penneycard of PKF offered a similar line — if one that was more guarded.
'The CBI has got to do a job,' he said. 'It has to lobby and shout. But this issue has not moved on from mid-December'.
However, Mr Penneycard agreed that business owners were increasingly making decisions for tax reasons, rather than commercial reasons - something the Government has long advised against.
He said: 'We're seeing a lot of clients having to make the decision whether find buyers for their businesses before April or sell up later, as planned, and pay 18% on
And he went on remark that an abolition of taper relief is an 'inequitable' move, unfair to new and veteran business owners.
Peter suggested a mechanism for 'banking' relief. Put simply, firms that sell up in the future would be allowed to pay only 10% tax on the proportion of profit earned over the years before April 2008.
'This, he said', 'would take the sting out of the Chancellors reforms'.
