Wealthy people who generate bogus capital losses to reduce their capital gains tax bills have been hit by a general anti-avoidance rule on the use of the loopholes.

The moves on capital losses follow a similar crackdown on the use of capital losses by companies last year, extending the nature of that restriction to individuals as well as companies.

Simultaneously, the government closed down six schemes that companies were using to avoid corporation tax.

The new legislation ranged from blocks on companies seeking to shift profits offshore and returning them to the UK without incurring a tax charge ­ to banks and other financial traders’ usage of authorised investment funds to avoid restrictions on claiming double tax relief.

Kevin Hindley, associate director of corporate tax at Chiltern, said: ‘The chancellor has clamped down on measures to avoid corporation tax and three stamp duty land tax schemes.

‘With the disclosure regime in place this specific clampdown on avoidance is going to be a regular feature of future budget reports.’