A bill aimed at making life easier for small and medium sized businesses has been reported back to Parliament.

The Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill is part of the Government's response to the recession and its provisions come into force on April 1.

The finance and expenditure committee recommended the bill be passed with some technical changes made.

The bill aimed to improve cashflow for small and medium-sized businesses by reducing obligations and cutting compliance costs.

One change was a reduction in the amount of provisional tax businesses had to pay.

Among other measures were: raising thresholds for PAYE tax, fringe benefit tax, and GST and simplification of rules for deducting legal expenditure.