Tax loopholes closed, but will they work?

While the welfare cuts took centre stage in the summer Budget, there were some radical tax changes in the red briefcase that close down a number of loopholes.

While you may think of tax loopholes in the context of celebrities using offshore film schemes, there is one you may very well have taken advantage of yourself:

Dividend tax

Under the new rules, the 10% dividend tax credit will be scrapped and replaced by a £5,000 dividend allowance. Currently the tax credit means basic rate taxpayers pay no tax on dividends, higher rate taxpayers pay 25% and additional rate taxpayers pay 30.6%. In the new regime, once the £5,000 allowance is used up the tax rates will be 7.5%, 32.5% and 38.1% for basic, higher, and additional rate taxpayers respectively.

This measure is expected to raise £6.8 billion, which is a huge sum. And it is likely that the Treasury will raise that considering the only option investors have is to trade in their shares if they don't want to pay tax. For those who haven't used up their ISA and pension allowances it make sense to move shares into these wrappers, where they will be tax-free.

Buy-to-let mortgage relief

The relief given to landlords on their mortgage interest, which they can offset against gains, costs the Treasury £6.3 billion so it's no surprise they want to scale it back. From 2017, landlords will only be able to claim back the interest at the basic rate of tax. This means that those who are higher and additional rate taxpayers will lose out on rental income.

The idea is to level the playing field between landlords and homeowners, the latter of which cannot claim mortgage interest relief. However, this measure doesn't come in until 2017, which gives landlords plenty of time to move properties into company structures, where the reduction in the relief won't apply.

Alternatively, the cost of the tax will be passed on to private tenants, many of who are saving for a deposit and will have less to put away - hardly a levelling of the playing field.

Permanent non-doms

Permanent non-domiciles are a curious bunch; they live and work in the UK, use UK resources like the NHS but claim status as a foreign national in order to keep assets untaxed.

Not anymore. As part of a plan to introduce 'fundamental fairness;, chancellor George Osborne said that he will remove the permanent non-dom status and anyone who has lived in Britain for 15 out of the last 20 years will now be taxed on all their assets, not just the assets in the country.

This could raise £1.5 billion over the next five years but Osborne is going to have to be quick before all the non-doms make themselves semi-permanent by upping and leaving.

More on AOL Money:

Budget 2015 brings buy-to-let nightmare

Budget 2015: winners and losers

Budget 2015: key points