Should a Land Value Tax replace most other taxes?

[Dentzler]

Land Value Taxation is a method of raising public revenue by means of an annual charge on the rental value of land.

 

Although described as a tax, it is not really a tax at all, but a payment for benefits received. It would replace, not add to, existing taxes.

 

Properly applied, Land Value Tax would support a whole range of social and economic initiatives, including housing, transport and other infrastructural investments. It is an elementary fiscal measure that would go far towards correcting fundamental economic and social ills.

The value of every parcel of land in Britain would be assessed regularly and the land value tax levied as a percentage of those assessed values.

 

"Land" means the site alone, not counting any improvements. The value of buildings, crops, drainage or any other works which people have erected or carried out on each plot of land would be ignored, but it would be assumed that all neighbouring properties were developed as at the time of the valuation; other things being equal, a vacant site in a row of houses would be assessed at the same value as the adjacent sites occupied by houses.

 

The valuation would be based on market evidence, in accordance with the optimum use of the land within the planning regulations. If the current planning restrictions on the use were altered, the site would be reassessed.

 

Link >>

 

http://www.landvaluetax.org/what-is-lvt/

 

What do you all think?

[anywebsite]

No. I think it's an interesting idea, but it shouldn't replace all or even most other taxes. It could be used as a replacement for council tax & business rates.

[*_ash_*]

No. I think it's an interesting idea, but it shouldn't replace all or even most other taxes. It could be used as a replacement for council tax & business rates.

 

Could any tax do that though?

 

I wonder if 50% VAT on everything except food, but NO other taxes at all would be close to that?

 

edit: no it wouldn't, there would still have to be income tax, but could be structured differently.

[spilldig]

The trouble with any tax with the exception of income tax,at least in theory,takes no account of a persons ability to pay it,therefore I voted no.

[Mikes10]

LVT is just different method of collecting taxes to fund national and local governments. Remember:- the

government is paid for by taxation. If someone proposed a different method of funding government that would

guarantee everyone's tax bill to be reduced then the government of the day would implement it straight away,

but of course nobody can. What I can guarantee is if a government did introduce LVT your initial tax bill would

rise.

 

LVT sounds a little like Alex Salmond and his urge for independence - at first glance it seems ok but when you

start digging into the detail, the answers to even the basic questions are fraught problems.

[Uptowngirl]

Could any tax do that though?

 

I wonder if 50% VAT on everything except food, but NO other taxes at all would be close to that?

 

edit: no it wouldn't, there would still have to be income tax, but could be structured differently.

 

A land tax is a totally stupid idea unless you can find a way to equate the value of 500 acres of fenland that is underwater on the spring tide with 500 acres of Kensington & Chelsea.

 

I've always found VAT difficult to avoid. If you spend money in the UK they pretty much have you. If you earn money in the UK they have to chase you and will only catch you if you want them to.

[chem1st]

A land tax is a totally stupid idea unless you can find a way to equate the value of 500 acres of fenland that is underwater on the spring tide with 500 acres of Kensington & Chelsea.

 

I've always found VAT difficult to avoid. If you spend money in the UK they pretty much have you. If you earn money in the UK they have to chase you and will only catch you if you want them to.

 

Land 'VALUE' Tax.

[muddycoffee]

Surely the problem with any Land value Tax is that the Aristocracy has spent several centuries getting all the land they value into trust so that it cannot be measured when one generation passes the property onto the next.

There is no official survey to enable the wealthy landowners to be taxed, only the Land Registry which purely surveys houses and small farms which have changed ownership in the last 83 years since it was set up in 1925.

According to the Lord Chancellor's Department as reported in 2002 there was about two million estates of unregistered land in England and Wales.

There is no way that the Tories and the Aristocracy are going to let that change.

[Uptowngirl]

Land 'VALUE' Tax.

 

I Am AbLe To ReAd. How do you value land? You can't even compare the value of 2 one hectare fields that are next to one another.

[geared]

It's a stupid idea that'd never work.

 

It'd push rental prices through the roof, as every landlord would just pass the cost onto their tenants.

 

It'd cripple our agriculture and industry, the extra tax burden would make our products so uncompetitive that no-one would buy them - we'd literally end up importing everything we use.