171–180 of 910 posts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism
Fascinating. First I've heard of this. I can see the obvious advantages, though I'm sure there are disadvantages I'm missing.
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That's a lot more romantic until you remember it's just going to the government, not some mystical starscape.
The government owns all the land and gives you a more-or-less yearly subscription to keep your land at a reasonable cost. If you are a landlord then you're just a middle-man who can profit.
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I’ve heard economists champion the idea, but I’ve heard little talk about what the tradeoffs are. What are the downsides?
Whenever something is taxed, less of it is produced. In the case of LVT, the tax is on land that is in a desirable location with lots of nearby amenities. LVT encourages urban sprawl by punishing retail, industrial, and residential concerns that choose to agglomerate with higher taxes. LVT means less walkable cities and more LA style sprawl.
Perhaps someone who has thought about this more can explain how a 'land value tax' differs from existing property tax regimes that explicitly examine the value of improvements and the value of land... This Detroit case is interesting because there are different rates of taxation on the land, but the difference in rate could also be obtained by increasing the land component of a parcel's value.
Agreed - the many counties in the US already have a portion of the property tax bill coming from a land value tax/Georgianism. California property tax bills have two components [1][2]: - structure/improvement assessed value - land value assessed value The land value component is re-accessed frequently and changes based on comparables (presumably but its mostly black box). The question is to what degree/portion of Geo…
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The housing shortage is the result of under-building over the past fifteen years, exacerbated by labor shortages in the construction industry and trades. On the land side of the equation, the problem is zoning not bad tax incentives. LVTs could move the housing supply needle in some locales but if you want to increase the supply of housing there are bigger dragons to slay.
Under building is caused by NIMBYISM which exists without opposition because we don't value and tax land fairly. Stop letting low tax paying SFHing leech off the system, and we will be incentivized to build more.
The best way to keep your land value tax low is to ensure that zoning restricts its use and Light Rail never gets built.
I'd write more, but only if someone responds to this.
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The difference is that someone created the products that I own and I payed them for it. However, no one (at least no one human depending on your religious beliefs) created the land.
Someone created the improvements on it, though. Which is most of what you're paying for when you buy or rent a place to live. This isn't going to change much about landlords. If anything, it will increase the amount of housing rented through landlords, because the land value tax will make it uneconomical for more people to own their own homes. In a high value area, the only people who would be able to do so are the v…
I'm confused. How will this make things better? Does that mean a Detroit house-owners will suddenly have to pay more taxes? Isn't Detroit barely breathing?
No. The way taxes work is first you work out how much taxes need to collect, then you work out how much weight everyone has afterwards and split it all up according to that weight. This plan plans to reduce the weight of property and more than double the weight for land. The city forecasts[0] that the average Detroit homeowner will get a 17% permanent property tax cut in 2025. 97% of all Detroit homeowners will get a…
I've been thinking about local taxes a lot recently (I've been a locally elected selectman for a tiny town in MA) and realized that the automobile ruined the way we value land, which ultimate ruined the way that municipalities are able to control costs and spend their taxes to add value. I'd write more, but only if someone responds to this.
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Is it? I can tell you now, I have no difficulty asserting that the value is near zero for the depreciating, crumbling houses on top of most of the land in the Mission in San Francisco. All the appreciation, which means nearly all of the sales price, of a typical home here, is the land. BuT rEnNoVaTiOnS. Listen, I’m not trying to give you a comprehensive answer. I’m just trying to show that it’s not by far the biggest…
The problem you're glossing over is what value should be assigned to the land. If some land developer wants to build a new arena next to your plot of land - boom you're value just skyrocketed. If the same land developer backs out of the deal - boom your land is worth less (or is actually worthless). Your taxes depend on exactly when the assessment was made... and even professionals cannot agree on valuation (as we're…