The tax harvest.

Tonight most of the Australian population will have a few drinks and stay up late to watch the fireworks as they welcome in a new year.

This new year looks like bringing with it a lot more problems than the old year delivered, and one of those problems will be an increase in the tax harvest scattered across most aspects of life.

It seems to be a rite of passage that state governments see the new year as the starting date for implementing their never ending quest for more money. From tomorrow there will be some tax increases that are hard to miss. For instance, train and bus fares will jump seven and a half percent.

The tax increases that go unnoticed are the ones that subtly add to the cost of living. All the fees that get tacked on to any matter proceeding through the courts will rise from tomorrow. All sorts of licenses - including the compulsory green slip needed to register a car - will marginally rise.

None of these are large enough to generate a public out cry - but they will take a few dollars here and there out of your pocket - and for some strange reason they never seem to tally in the published rate of inflation.

It is often called " the nickel and dime " approach.

Many will face this new year with trepidation - because job security is threatened by the financial meltdown and the extent of the world recession has yet to be determined.

We will probably all survive to greet another new year twelve months from now - but as a wise man once predicted - nothing is certain - except " death and taxes " !

Expect those taxes to inch ever upward every year when the fireworks end !