Why you should love paying tax!

There's no question your tax bill will rise after the election. But here are six reasons why that's not as bad as it seems.

The only people pretending we aren’t all going to be paying more tax after the election are the politicians who are going to hit us with these nasty tax rises.

What we do know is that if Labour gets in, your National Insurance (NI) contributions will rise by 1p from April 2011, and I bet they have other tax tricks up their sleeves. If the Tories win, they will block the NI hike for workers earning up to £35,000, but will still have to raise taxes, perhaps by lifting VAT from 17.5% to 20% instead.

You might think that is a bad thing, but I’m going to show you that you’re wrong.

• Watch our video on Britain's most hated tax.

There’s a hole in my budget

The truth is, whoever wins, we will all pay more tax. Repairing the UK’s fiscal hole will cost £70 billion a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and we can’t plug it entirely by cutting state spending. Even income tax may have to rise, perhaps by fiddling with the income bands to shunt more innocent folk into the 40% tax bracket.

There are tax differences between the parties. Labour and the Lib Dems will mostly try to plug the deficit mostly by raising taxes, the Tories by cutting state spending. So if you’re voting entirely with your wallet, your decision is simple. If you work in the public sector, vote Labour or Lib Dem, because your job might be that little bit safer. But if you are in the overtaxed private sector, vote Tory.

You’ll still pay more tax, though.

Feel good, pay tax

There’s no point getting all worked up about tax hikes. Your tax pays for plenty of useful stuff such as hospitals, schools, roads, the police, MPs’ expenses, banker bail-outs and thousands of very practical local government diversity officers.

Since you’re going to have to pay tax regardless (unless you’re rich, when it’s optional), you might as well lie back and enjoy the experience. Here’s how to stop moaning and love paying tax.

1. Cheer up, you’ve got a job.

You’ve just had an income tax bill. You know what that means? That’s right, you’ve got a job! With unemployment rising, that’s something to be happy about. The only thing worse than paying income tax is not paying it, because it means you are out of work, and that’s bad.

2. The more tax you pay, the richer you are!

Income tax is a progressive tax, which means higher earners pay more than low earners, proportionate to their income. So don’t groan when you complete your self-assessment form, the fact that you’re filling the Treasury’s coffers with a stack of cash is a mark of your personal fiscal success. A whopping tax demand is like a badge that says: “You’ve made it!”.

3. You live in the UK.

You don’t have to skulk about in some offshore enclave, spending half your time in dreary meetings with accountants trying to find new ways of keeping your wedge from the Revenue. If you pay tax in the UK, you can get on with your life, in a not-so-bad country to live in.

4. Some countries charge more tax.

You could live in France, Norway, Sweden or any other European country where, incredible though it may seem, the tax burden is still higher than in the UK (although admittedly they do get something in return, because the trains work, schools teach kids stuff and their English is better).

5. Be grateful you’re not American.

The Yanks are really angry about tax. They even have a dedicated anti-tax movement, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party, and boy are they furious. This is strange, given that they pay far less tax in the US than we do. The less you pay, it seems, the angrier you get. So be happy, pay more tax.

6. You’re helping others.

If Labour win, your NI hike will help state sector workers remain comfortably employed, and the poor spend their lives on tax credits, trapped by 70% marginal rates of taxation if they get a job. If the Tories win, your extra VAT payments will slash inheritance tax for the top 3% of the population (including David Cameron’s wife), and reduce the tax burden for those earning more than £150,000. So either way, your tax is helping others. Now doesn’t that make you feel good?!

So there you go, six great reasons to stop moaning and love paying tax. You might need to remind yourself of this after the election, when you will be paying a lot more of it.

More: 10 things you need to do this month | Avoid paying inheritance tax