A leading tax consultant says changes to taxation in the 2012 Budget were modest, and the Government could have gone a lot further.
The Government will increase tobacco excise tax, tighten tax rules for renting out assets like baches, change livestock valuation rules.
Three three tax credits will be cut; the income under $9880 tax credit, the childcare and housekeeper tax credit and the tax credit for children in part-time work, which will be replaced by a limited exemption.
The Government expects these tax and excise measures to raise almost $1.4 billion in new revenue over four years.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers chairman John Shewan said most of those changes should have happened a long time ago.
Mr Shewan said the Government has let people off lightly over baches and holiday homes.
"What they're really saying is, if you rent your holiday home out for 20 days and you live in it for 20 days you can still claim 50 percent of the expenses.
"I personally think they should just pro rata that according to the income that you've received."
The tax credits abolished in this Budget were out of date and superseded by other polices so should have been changed some time ago, he said, and there was no significant change to the taxation of property generally.
