I acknowledge the bow-out intention, and I’ll just answer what look like the cruxy bits and then leave it.
There’s no actual price signal or ground truth for that portion of the value.
Fortunately we have solved this problem! Slightly simplified: what a vacant lot sells for is the land value, and how much more a developed lot next to it sells for is the value of the improvements. Using the prices from properties recently sold is how they usually calculate this.
If it’s NOT just using a land-value justification to raise the dollar amounts greatly, please educate me.
Let the record reflect that I totally expect someone to do this. But as for doing it in a non-insane fashion, we take what used to be a property tax and turn it into a sales tax, which is levied on sales of property.
There’s a good guest blog post over at AstralCodexTen which digs into the value assessment problem which I think you would like. That whole series of guest blog posts was fascinating.
Take what used to be a property tax and turn it into a sales tax, which is levied on sales of property.
This would alleviate a lot of my concerns. Sales taxes (on actual sales, as long as it’s not imputed or assumed-sale where no money is actually changing hands) have a ton of advantages, not least of which is that the money is ALWAYS there to pay the taxes. I suspect it won’t satisfy the Georgists, though, as it doesn’t capture appreciation in value if there’s no sale for decades or longer. Maybe—it does remove the incentive for empty-land speculation.
I acknowledge the bow-out intention, and I’ll just answer what look like the cruxy bits and then leave it.
Fortunately we have solved this problem! Slightly simplified: what a vacant lot sells for is the land value, and how much more a developed lot next to it sells for is the value of the improvements. Using the prices from properties recently sold is how they usually calculate this.
Let the record reflect that I totally expect someone to do this. But as for doing it in a non-insane fashion, we take what used to be a property tax and turn it into a sales tax, which is levied on sales of property.
There’s a good guest blog post over at AstralCodexTen which digs into the value assessment problem which I think you would like. That whole series of guest blog posts was fascinating.
And with that, we’ll call it!
This would alleviate a lot of my concerns. Sales taxes (on actual sales, as long as it’s not imputed or assumed-sale where no money is actually changing hands) have a ton of advantages, not least of which is that the money is ALWAYS there to pay the taxes. I suspect it won’t satisfy the Georgists, though, as it doesn’t capture appreciation in value if there’s no sale for decades or longer. Maybe—it does remove the incentive for empty-land speculation.