The number of families paying no tax or with benefits that outweigh the tax has increased by 276,000 in four years to about 42 percent, The Weekend Australian reports.

At the same time, the number of wage earners paying more has increased by 134,000. Many are earning just over the limit that would spare them any tax.

Some of the increase in taxes is being used to fund tax cuts for women who work part-time. In some families, the father is paying more while the mother is paying less.

The Australian's analysis of the tax trends of recent years has found that the Conservative government of former Prime Minister John Howard -- criticized by Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a "brutopia" -- was the most generous in Australian history. Rudd, so far, has made few changes in spite of promises to "increase the take-home pay of all workers" in the first Labor budget.