Joe Hockey has promised to take personal income tax cuts to the next election, by which time he may say how he will pay for them.
The treasurer used a speech on Monday to justify the need to cut tax rates to address the growing problem of bracket creep, but was vague on how it would achieved with the budget still in deep deficit.
Business consultants CPA Australia said Mr Hockey was merely repeating what was in his tax discussion paper in March.
"The treasurer appears to be caught in a cycle of restating the problems rather than re-thinking the solutions," CPA boss Alex Malley said in a statement.
While other business groups were more supportive, BDO Australia national tax director Lance Cunningham says ensuring the tax rates and thresholds for income tax keep up with inflation "should not be confused with real tax reform".
Tax Institute president Stephen Healey said Australia's high corporate tax rate also needed to be addressed.
The institute played co-host with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand for Mr Hockey's speech where he detailed the risks of taking no action on bracket creep.
"Unquestionably bracket creep is holding people back," Mr Hockey told reporters after delivering his speech.
If no action is taken, in the next two years about 300,000 Australians will move into the second-highest tax bracket just through wage inflation.
When asked whether a budget surplus or tax cuts was now the higher priority, Mr Hockey said: "It's both. We have got to try and do both."
He argued his second budget in May showed you could give small business $5 billion in tax cuts while making offsetting savings.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his government had a good track record in cutting the spending that enabled taxes to be lower.
"We're always looking for sensible savings and we're always looking to cut taxes further," he told reporters on Mer Island, in the Torres Strait.
But Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was "somewhat suspicious" the government was talking about tax cuts when there was a West Australian by-election on the horizon in the seat of Canning but no explanation how they would be paid for.
But Mr Hockey denied there was a correlation to the by-election to be held on September 19, saying he been talking about taxation reform for months.
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