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Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

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201–210 of 222 posts

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#201
post #192
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What then also of the minority that lives under these laws? I never once consented to them, and yet must submit to the majority. And you receive their benefit too. You might not like paying taxes but you receive the benefit of paying taxes, that is why you are forced to pay taxes like everyone else. Some people get more benefit than others but we all get something from paying taxes. If you don't like paying taxes,…

> If you don't like paying taxes, then you are free to move to a place where there are no taxes and no benefit from them. That is false for US citizens; the US taxes you on your worldwide income, even if you don't live or work in the US.

Once you are no longer a US citizen, you are in the clear.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#202

I wonder what obligations the Swiss lords have been neglecting. Perhaps the townsfolk could bill for absent services? They are not peasants, as such things likely don't exist in modern Italy. So how can they owe anything? The Swiss baron's descendants - are they still barons? Can they still hold a fief? Perhaps the Swiss baron's lord can be convinced to levy a similar tax on them, and return the money to the town. It…

Maybe trial by combat?

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the likelihood of the risk is small, but the potential damage bill could be financially catastrophic, I think it's perfectly rational to buy insurance if the premium is so low.

Sure. My point is that often the risk is not small, it's non-existent. When I bought my current house my solicitor suggested that the seller should pay for insurance cover for the fact that there was no planning paperwork for a small side extension. Of course I said OK and of course the seller also agreed. But that extension was even shown on the land registry plan and was obviously 20+ years old. Since planning brea…

Planning enforcement is 12 years from the date at which it became obvious that building works had been completed. So if you build a castle inside a agricultural shed and take the shed down after 12 years, the timer starts after you take down the shed. Also, there are many caveats and Planning law is complicated and often quite vague in Britain, so you should take advice on your specific situation.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#204
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not, HN threads are have been a great source of info on global subjects for me. Especially during the day when threads are not US centric

I currently read everything published by Rest of World. It's a new website focusing on tech scenes of countries other than the US. The quality is very high. Highly recommend.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

You know things are bad when your elderly mother is informing you about what's been going in the US...

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#205
This sounds like a perfect way to destroy your family’s reputation. I can’t imagine the thought process and sense of entitlement that leads you to try to become a feudal lord in the 21st century, but I know that I could never get along with somebody like that.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#206

I find these property rights that go back centuries a bit dubious. How was the property obtained in the first place? There were no modern laws at the time and common people had much fewer rights and protections. If the property was not obtained through outright violence, it was obtained in an environment that very much discriminated against common people, and God knows how much fraud and deception occurred. It actual…

At risk of throwing a sub thread of chaos, this was what I found interesting in these comments.

Specifically regarding the current Sheikh Jarrah conflict. Who actually 'owns' the land, and what does that mean? It seems like it completely depends on what time frame you look at and what claims the winner of war has or can enforce with force.

In the US, what about the Native Nations and the canceling or flat out ignoring of past legal documents. or the land given to former slaves later taken away.

Personally I lean towards your opinions. if the ruling power won't act humanely then reparations/compensation seems like the 2nd best option.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#208
post #117

Consider yourself lucky that you can reliably trace land ownership for centuries. Eastern Europe went through multiple upheavals in last 100 years and every time the wheel of history turned, quite a lot of land was dispossessed/repossessed by law. In Slovakia we basically ended up with two versions of land registry (called register "C" and "E") and the ongoing effort to reconcile them. Many properties are said to be…

In east germany, there are strange constellations, were someone might own the ground, but not the house upon it and vice versa. Some pieces of land were bought, before the original "owning" aristocrats descendants laid claim to them. In west germany, there were, originally very small, medieval fields, so a "Flurbereinigung" happened several times. This led to larger fields to work on, but below, some of them still ar…

> Also the church runs alot of old folks homes, and thus persuades old people to transfer there land to the church, so in some towns, half the houses are owned by the catholic church

Is the church exempt from property tax in Germany?

If so this sounds like a return to 'mortmain' principle of middle ages which caused a lot of conflict between government and church historically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortmain

England developed quicker than the rest of Europe because the King limited the accumulation of tax exempt real estate by the church. The church was essentially largest absentee corporate land holder in Europe. It left large quantities of land vacant and did not contribute public fees towards infrastructure improvements.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#209
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I live near the TI HQ in Dallas, so I thought I'd take a peek. The Bedford location apparently still exists as "Bedford Heights," and it does look like a mini TI. The Bedford Heights website does call out the "cyclone-proof roof," which they imported directly from the Dallas HQ blueprints.

Ah, thinking back (it was a loooong time ago, and I was only on-site for five days) I think she may have mentioned typhoons. The thing that really struck me at the time was not so much the building, but the security. There were card-access only doors every few yards, and they wouldn't give me even a visitor card - I had to be escorted to the lav and canteen all the time, which was irritating for all concerned. God kn…

I did a two week contract for a defense research institute once where a senior staff developer had to babysit me like that. He was nice about it, but it must have been really annoying. It was simply easier for them than going through the bureaucracy of getting me a visitor pass for a contract that short.

Re: Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which means all the owners are not known - previous landowner died or emigrated and it waits for their descendants to claim it. It isn't possible to build anything on these lots In the U.S. there is no central registrar, deeds are recorded at local level, and owners are regularly found by collecting property tax. Back tax is tracked independently of ownership so if true owner fails to pay tax within a few years the…

There are large swaths of land in the US which are under ownership but unusable because the owners are absentee and the cost and complexity of locating the owner or pursuing a lein are both greater than the value of the property. In my part of the country there are places where this situation has persisted for fifty years, as the auction value of the property is only in the hundreds of dollars per acre and back prope…

> In my part of the country there are places where this situation has persisted for fifty years, as the auction value of the property is only in the hundreds of dollars per acre

At 2021 market valuations, not lower public assessments?

> Even in higher property value areas I would be surprised to see a tax delinquency action taken after just a few years. The administrative cost is substantial

In some areas owner only has a few years then legal department will process tax sale within few months. It's true that in many areas property tax less than 1% of true market value. Prior to 1930s when no state or local government was collecting sales tax it used to be closer 3%.

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