Making his last pre-Budget report before next year's general election, chancellor Alistair Darling didn't pull any white rabbits out of the hat. Instead he played it safe in his speech to the House of Commons today by steering clear of dramatic headline tax increases and emphasising his commitment to the government's existing spending plan on 'frontline' areas such as health, education and the police. Alan Downey, KPMG's head of public sector, said of the chancellor's spending plans: 'We have been waiting for an announcement on where the axe will fall but it is clear that at this stage in the electoral cycle the chancellor's weapon of choice is a butter knife rather than an axe.' But the chancellor did unveil a 'supertax' of 50% to be payable by banks on bonuses of more than £25,000 to reward high-performers. He also confirmed that VAT would return to 17.5% from 1 January 2010. Among other measures Darling deferred a 1p rise in corporation tax for small companies until April 2011 and exempted electric cars from company car tax for five years.