Why is it a fine? Why not a tax? Taxing unused spaces sitting idle makes a lot more sense than income (ie: people’s work).
> Why is it a fine? Why not a tax? what's the difference?
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Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
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Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#12How about letting people build more and taller buildings? How about that, huh?
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#13It's kinda easy to make it look like a building is occupied and avoid the fine. It's kinda hard for authorities to prove otherwise.
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why is it a fine? Why not a tax? Fines (at least, non-criminal ones) and taxes, while sometimes procedurally distinct, are essentially functionally equivalent.
In general, taxes are deductible whereas fines are not.
And you usually don’t self-assess fines, but you do self-assess taxes.
Leave the fines for when taxes aren’t self-assessed.
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#15Why is it a fine? Why not a tax? Taxing unused spaces sitting idle makes a lot more sense than income (ie: people’s work).
Maybe fines offer more discretion for officials (easy to impose, revise, and target specific landlords) as opposed to a tax which would be more rigid (slow to implement, difficult to change)?
is it good that fines allow them to target specific landlords?
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#16Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#17Sounds similar to UK's former “squatters' rights”―where squatting was legal after the WW2, so that someone looked after buildings and neighborhoods.
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#18People should be able to do whatever they want with their properties
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#19Why is it a fine? Why not a tax? Taxing unused spaces sitting idle makes a lot more sense than income (ie: people’s work).
Yeah let's just get rid of income taxes and have an empty-building based economy that makes a lot of sense
Or lower one with the revenue from the other...
I also prefer sales taxes over income taxes with cheques to counter their regressive nature.
And carbon taxes over sales and income taxes. Taxing destruction is a good thing.
Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty
#20It's kinda easy to make it look like a building is occupied and avoid the fine. It's kinda hard for authorities to prove otherwise.
Sounds more like Vancouver law which really targeted foreign owners who were parking their capital and doing nothing with the property.
At some point, the effort required to cover up the lack of occupancy is equivalent to renting out the place.