The taxman is to get sharper teeth with a $119.3 million increase in funding over the next four years.

The Govt's wide-ranging income tax cuts have drawn widespread praise despite GST jumping to 15 per cent.

Bill English has delivered a Budget in which he can have a bob each way, writes Audrey Young.

Links to all nzherald.co.nz's coverage of today's Budget announcements. News, comment and analysis.

Click here for full coverage and analysis, and reaction to the 2010 Budget

The education sector has had to come up with more than half of the $1.9 billion to fund new education initiatives over the next four years.

The Govt's decision to remove recognition for fully qualified centres 'dumbs down' the sector, early childhood educators say.

The full text of Finance Minister Bill English's Budget 2010 speech to Parliament.

The Govt has allocated just under $500 million annually to health - $250m less a year than the increase in last year's budget.

The top income tax rate has been slashed to 33 cents as part of across the board tax cuts, with the Govt promising most NZers will be better off, despite a rise in GST.

Politically safe, yet economically timid and fiscally vulnerable - that's the initial verdict on Bill English's second Budget.

The Budget avoids the potential trap of being too austere and fiscally virtuous too soon, when the recovery is still in a young, frost-tender stage.

New Zealanders earning over $50k will now be paying less tax than Australians after today's tax cuts.

"There is not much we would be critical of," says Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr. "The budget reveals sound steps but not step changes."

Owners of both commercial buildings and rental houses will no longer be able to claim depreciation on their investments.