Business leaders have urged Chancellor George Osborne to avoid introducing "punishing" new taxes which they warned would hit economic growth.
The British Chambers of Commerce voiced concern that the coalition government would announce an increase in capital gains tax in next week's emergency Budget.
A survey of 1,000 firms showed that nine out of 10 wanted corporation tax lowered at the expense of tax allowances.
Companies repeated their opposition to next year's planned increase in national insurance, with a third wanting the rise scrapped "regardless of the cost".
Asked what would be the least damaging way of raising VAT to 20%, one in three firms said it should be increased in one go rather than phased in.
David Frost, director general of the BCC, said: "The Chancellor must tread carefully to avoid introducing damaging new taxes that negatively affect private-sector growth.
"Short-term revenue gains would be outweighed by longer-term economic consequences, from reduced business investment to lower rates of job creation. Any tax rises must be focused on consumption taxes rather than payroll, income or profits.
"The bulk of the measures to reduce the UK's unsustainable deficit should come from public spending cuts. It should not come from punishing tax hikes on small and medium-sized firms that will drive our economic recovery. Crucially, the Chancellor has a unique opportunity in this Budget to talk positively about doing business in the UK, and he can show that this administration is genuinely pro-enterprise."
The TUC called for an increase in capital gains tax, claiming it was used by the rich to avoid paying their proper share of tax.
General secretary Brendan Barber said: "The vast majority of taxpayers never come into contact with capital gains tax as they are simply not wealthy enough to buy and sell the assets that bring capital gains. But most will find it incomprehensible that they pay more tax on the wages they earn from putting in a full day's work than the wealthy do from sitting back and watching their assets increase in value."
