Adding to the sense that many Australians are not doing it as tough as the Federal Government insists, a survey has shown that many would be willing to pay more tax in exchange for better services.

The latest Per Capita Tax Survey has made the shocking revelation that Australians do not mind paying taxes if they are used appropriately.

Health and education would be the major fields in which people wanted to see extra spending.

The Per Capita poll said overall, more people felt they were paying the right amount of tax than believed they were paying too much.

It is the first time most people have not reported feeling overtaxed in the last three years of surveys.

“Between 2010 and late 2012, our views of the tax system became steadily less generous,” Per Capita executive director David Hetherington told Fairfax Media reporters.

“We felt increasingly we were paying too much tax and our support for public spending, while high, was falling,” he said.

“These sentiments have now reversed. Rather than saying they pay too much, Australians now claim they are paying about the right amount, and their support for higher public spending has risen.”

Mr Hetherington said the change could have been driven by one of several factors.

There has been a less-than-lively reaction from alarming rhetoric about the carbon and mining taxes.

The lack of forecast economic doom from those two taxes probably played a role, as did an acceptance that as the mining boom ends, Australians will expect better use of their taxes.

The survey was conducted five months after the election but before the Commission of Audit report, and showed at that time a majority wanted more spending on health and education, a total of 86 per cent and 77 per cent of respondents respectively.

Many said they wanted more spending on social security (43 per cent), defence (28 per cent) and foreign aid (14 per cent).

When surveys gave participants the option of paying for more public schools funding by cutting grants to private schools, 52 per cent said yes.

About one third wanted to do this by cutting other government spending, and 4 per cent opted to do it by paying more tax.