Taxes are a necessary evil – which is why neither side of politics is willing to sign themselves up to the best way to keep them in check.

While most of us acknowledge the merits, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone jumping for joy when they find out their tax bill is growing.

Bracket creep is a villain which allows whoever is in government to play the hero.Credit: Matt Davidson

The one you’re probably most familiar with is personal income tax – a chunk of your income scooped out from your salary every pay cycle. Luckily for politicians, it’s not often that they need – or choose – to raise them.

That’s because the tax system is designed in a way that “naturally” fattens the amount of tax raked in by the government every year. You’re paying more in tax this year? “Not our fault,” they can shrug. It’s simply the way things are.

As you know, we pay bigger tax rates within higher tax brackets (slices of income) with the amount of our income determining which rates – and ultimately, how much tax – we pay. While your income usually climbs each year, those tax brackets and rates don’t budge automatically.

When the growth of your pay packet is faster than the rise in consumer prices (such as the price of the champagne you might crack open after a pay rise), it’s not so bad. But when your pay isn’t keeping up with inflation, your tax bill still increases, leaving you doubly worse off.

To be fair to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, he had one of the best ideas in this broadly uninspiring election campaign: change the system.

This extra tax you pay is........

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