From: stephen@sprunk.org   
      
   On 21-Mar-15 16:58, bob wrote:   
   > On 2015-03-21 20:25:46 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:   
   >> btw, land is a lot easier to assess than buildings as you just need   
   >> to know square footage and buildable characteristics and what   
   >> surrounding properties are used for. With buildings, you have to   
   >> keep up with changes in the building's characteristics over time   
   >> and correctly entering building permits and the like. From a quick   
   >> drive by, the number of bathrooms in a house isn't possible to   
   >> estimate.   
   >   
   > The downside of land value tax is that the owner of the land will   
   > find himself liable for this tax as a result of events entirely   
   > outside of his own control.  Suppose I buy a house in the "rough" end   
   > of town because I can't afford a big enough house int the expensive   
   > end of town.  Suppose my part of town then goes up in the world and   
   > suddenly my home becomes expensive.  Is it really reasonable that I   
   > should be liable for a huge tax demand that, perhaps, I can't afford,   
   > because some other factors have come to bear on my neighbourhood?   
      
   It's reasonable because you benefit (perhaps yet unrealized) from an   
   increase in property value through no effort of your own.  If you can't   
   afford to pay the higher taxes, sell the property for a nice profit and   
   move somewhere cheaper--and let someone else pay those higher taxes.   
      
   > Perhaps a farmer buys a field in the middle of nowhere, to grow some   
   > crops on.  Then a highway gets built and suddenly his field is in the   
   > middle of expensive commuter-land.  Sure, if the farmer sold his   
   > land, he could realise a huge profit,   
      
   That's the point; farming is no longer the best use of that land, so he   
   _should_ have an incentive to sell it to someone who will use it more   
   productively--and pay higher taxes on it to fund the higher level of   
   public services that will be needed.   
      
   > but if all the farmland in the area suddenly becomes suburbia,   
      
   He might have to move a few miles further away from the city, but that's   
   it.  Or he could just take the millions he made selling his farm to   
   developers, invest it and retire.   
      
   >> Land taxes tax value that the land owner hasn't created. The value   
   >> is created by society in general; part of the value created by   
   >> society is through government spending.   
   >   
   > Sure, land value tax is one way of taxing the benefit an individual   
   > person gains from wider societal improvements.  It is not the only   
   > one, though, and in certain circumstances may not be the fairest   
   > one.   
      
   Land is the scarcest resource we have (as the saying goes, God ain't   
   creating any more of it), and it's also the simplest to tax, the   
   toughest tax to evade and the most stable tax base, all of which easily   
   overcome the various factors that make other tax systems appear better   
   on paper but much worse in practice.   
      
   S   
      
   --   
   Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein   
   CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the   
   K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)