tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post109606457242496251..comments2024-01-28T00:20:40.933-08:00Comments on Agoraphilia: Curious Georgist, Part 2Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post-1096132368704418482004-09-25T10:12:00.000-07:002004-09-25T10:12:00.000-07:00One advantage of property taxes from the standpoin...One advantage of property taxes from the standpoint of local juristdictions is the reliable and predictable nature of the revenue raised. Consider, for example, an office building. Regardless of the vacancy rate, you have to pay the same amount of taxes. Lucky government collects the same revenue no matter how much the (local) economy sucks except for the rare case when the property is assessed downward. Income taxes are subject to the vagaries of the business cycle and people's dishonest tendency to fudge the figures to evade taxes. <br /><br />I suppose the first effect of a property tax increase on a landlord is to try to pass the cost on to the tenants in the form of a rent increase. If you can't do that, you will be motivated to work harder or smarter to figure out how to cover the additional expense. And, if that doesn't work, you will improve your fudging technique to reduce your income tax even more. If all else fails, you can jump out window of the 15th floor of your hi-rise office building and pretend you can fly!<br /><br />TrumpitAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post-1096123074435568262004-09-25T07:37:00.000-07:002004-09-25T07:37:00.000-07:00According to the following Georgist site, there ar...According to the following Georgist site, there are some jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand that have attempted to approximate a tax on "unimproved value" of land:<br /><br />http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/hagman_donald_land_value_taxation.html<br /><br />It's not really clear to me from the article how good an approximation these attempts were, and it seems they didn't last very long, but these in any case are the sort of examples the Georgists would cite against your argument.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com