Budget 2013: tax rises likely after 2015, warns IFS That might mean truly radical cuts in public services, the economists said. Rowena Crawford of the IFS said politicians would almost certainly prefer to find some of the money from tax. That is after an election and it is much more possible that a future government will prefer to increase taxes instead. One option would be to avoid greater cuts in departmental budgets and keep the squeeze on spending at its current level. That would require new tax rises of £9 billion in the two years after the election, the IFS estimated. In a sign of the worsening outlook for the public finances, that is up from the estimate of £7 billion the IFS made late last year. £9bn is the equivalent of more than 2p on the basic rate of income tax, and equal to £346 for every household in the UK. The worse-than-expected state of the public finances has forced Mr Osborne to extend his austerity plans beyond 2015 and the election, though he has not said how he would fill the deficit after 2015. The choice would be between more spending cuts and more tax rises. The Budget book this week raised the prospect of tax rises instead of spending cuts. "It would of course be possible to do more if this further consolidation than through tax instead," the Budget said. The IFS called that a "rather heavy hint" and concluded: "Such an outcome looks to us more likely than not." The Government borrowed £121bn last year. This year borrowing will be £120.9bn, the smallest possible fall. Ministers have admitted that the fall was only possible because of emergency cuts in departmental budgets this year, and delaying payments to bodies like the World Bank. The IFS was scathing about that exercise, effectively accusing ministers of wastefully manipulating spending plans for political ends. "There is every indication that the numbers have been carefully managed with a close eye on the headline borrowing figures for this year," the IFS said. It is unlikely that this has led either to an economically optimal allocation of spending across years or to a good use of time by officials and ministers.