Tax changes expected but English giving little away

Tax changes are expected in tomorrow's Budget - but the Finance Minister isn't giving much away.

Bill English watched his fourth Budget stream off the printers this morning.

It's moving with the times, with the documents being printed digitally rather than on the old fashioned big printers, giving more control on the numbers of documents being printed, thereby saving money.

Mr English doesn't like the word 'austerity' being used , but is repeating it will be a zero Budget.

"Well we're just being pretty sensible. The Government wants to stop its debt rising so we're taking the steps that are necessary to do that at the same time as focusing on our longer term growth prospects so it's pretty balanced."

He's reiterated there'll be no capital gains tax, but there are changes in store for those who structure their finances in a way that avoids tax obligations.

Mr English says it's about improving fairness in the tax system.

"Keeping a broad tax base so that we can keep the rates relatively low. There's no big steps but we just continue each year to patch some holes, improve the fairness, keep the revenue base broad."