Promised tax cuts have won applause from the business community in the hope they will boost jobs and encourage growth.
But corporate leaders are worried that the increase in spending overall is further delays the chance to get back to surplus.
The biggest changes to superannuation in a decade also loom as a point of division within the business community.
Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox said it was a "measured budget that balances fiscal responsibility and a path to budgetary sustainability".
He was pleased with measures to reduce Australia's high corporate tax burden, but noted that given it will take a decade to get to 25 per cent, the "clear risk involved in such a gradual phase down is that the international competitiveness benchmark could well be closer to 20 per cent by 2026-27".
BDO tax partner Mark Molesworth said measures like further cutting taxes for small business, winding back superannuation concessions and progressively moving the corporate tax rate to 25 per cent were positive, but they didn't do enough to address the broader structural issues facing Australia's tax system.
"This is very much a budget from a government whose first, second and third priorities are getting re-elected," he said.
Corporate tax cut praised
Mr Pearson said "the glide path to a company tax rate of 25 per cent by 2026-27 will make Australia a more appealing destination for international investors and will encourage Australians to develop their enterprises at home".
Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, which represents the country's biggest companies, said the budget was "fiscally responsible as well as supporting growth".
Company tax cuts would "give businesses greater capacity to invest in more productive enterprises".
PwC chief executive Luke Sayers said it was a "no-frills, responsible budget" that had missed "the traditional sweeteners you would expect at this stage in the cycle".
"The discipline is apparent in terms of directing funding only to those measures which will have an impact on workforce participation and encourage growth," he said.
The business community would reserve judgement until the corporate tax changes were legislated and through the Senate, but the gradual reduction, "sends a strong signal of intent", he said.
"A corporate tax reduction also provides an elegant balance between 'carrot and stick' incentives in conjunction with the new multinational tax avoidance laws," he said.
Superannuation changes get mixed reaction
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the tightening of super tax concessions and changes to youth employment programs were welcome, but locking in $13 billion of cuts affecting people on low incomes were "harsh".
She said personal and company tax cuts costing $8.8 billion are only partly offset by the $3.3 billion in integrity measures, most of which are assumed to come from more resourcing of the ATO.
"By failing to act on shelters and loopholes such as negative gearing, capital gains discounts, private companies and trusts and work-related deductions, our revenue base is at real risk of further erosion," she said.
The Actuaries Institute president Lindsay Smartt said the budget had the biggest changes to the superannuation sector since the Peter Costello budget of 2007.
"Overall the budget changes improve the system, making it fairer while also increasing revenue to assist the economy in these financially constrained times," he said.
Fund management company Challenger has lobbied hard for this tax reform which will open up a new market.
"Deferred lifetime annuities will give Australians a simple and effective way to insure against the risk of outliving their savings," Challenger chief executive Brian Benari said.
Changes "very fair"
KPMG's head of superannuation tax Dana Fleming said the government's measures to allow those with broken work records, often women, to make top-up payments was "very fair" "It will go some way to ensuring those individuals have a decent retirement package.
"Paring back some current concessions – bringing down the 30 per cent tax threshold from $300,000 to $250,000 seems to strike a reasonable balance between equity and incentives for people to fund their own retirement," she said.
Lobby group for the retail wealth management sector, The Financial Services Council (FSC), condemned the crackdown on retirees with more than $1.6 million in super and warned other measures aimed at tightening super tax perks for the rich risked backfiring and pushing more people onto the age pension in the future.
"The test for this budget is whether Australia will have more pensioners or more self funded retirees," FSC chief executive Sally Loane said.
"Australia needs more self-funded retirees. Many of these proposals appear counterproductive and we urge consultation to align budget measures with the objective of super."
However Ms Loane welcomed changes to make contribution caps more flexible and retain a low income tax offset highlighting these would improve fairness, particularly for women.
Target multinational tax avoidance: too far or not far enough?
Tim Andrews, Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers' Alliance, an advocacy group against higher tax, said the measure symbolised is that "Australia is closed for business and does not value innovation or intellectual property rights".
But Oxfam's Australia's Budget spokesperson Joy Kyriacou said the announcement of further money to clamp down on multinational tax dodging – such as more staff for the ATO – did not go far enough to properly tackle the issue. There had to be greater transparency of company tax affairs.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Brendan Lyon said: "The allocation of federal asset recycling funds rewards the states that have done the heavy lifting and privatised assets to pay for infrastructure, and rightly does not reward the states that are sitting on their hands asking for national government handouts."
Professional non-executive director Andrea Staines - whose board roles include QIC, SeaLink Travel, and Transport for NSW - said the extension of the government's "asset recycling" was a positive for infrastructure and public transport planning.
"The government's plan to encourage asset recycling is on the right track with its focus on proper cost benefit analysis for new projects," she said. "It was also terrific to see the scope of the program expanded from roads to also include public transport."
Pitcher Partners managing partner John Brazzale also praised the government's infrastructure commitments. "We're happy to see a focus on genuinely productive, targeted spending," he said.
Job creation that stems from billions of dollars of infrastructure investments "will stand Australia in good stead as it transitions out of the mining boom", he said.
Surplus delayed
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's chief executive James Pearson described it as "unfortunate" that the surplus will not be return to surplus over the next for years.
There was "more work to do" in ensuring that welfare spending is targeted.
Ms Westacott too echoed these concerns saying that given the deficit persisted above two per cent of GDP, "the government needs to continue the work of redesigning major spending programs".
