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Property taxes are usually the county's way of generating revenue. Assuming the Federal Government could come up with mileage rates for the entire country and

Property taxes are usually the county's way of generating revenue. Assuming the Federal Government could come up with mileage rates for the entire country and survive the huge backlash from the transition... Businesses with small footprints would see a tax benefit. Businesses would probably start implementing mandatory work from home policies and reduce their office space. Most businesses rent so property holders would feel the tax burden and rents would go up significantly. Businesses would also start moving to locations with cheaper mileage rates. Businesses would start downsizing their office spaces at the detriment of employees. Businesses have already started the practice of selling their property assets and then renting them for other reasons, this would only increase. In the end you'd be penalizing businesses that need store fronts to operate and encouraging more teleworking. Tariffs would only affect a small portion of business and you might see an increase in manufacturing in the US but that would depend on the property taxes. With both you'd be missing large business segments. Service providers that don't need physical locations or produce products would have to pay no taxes? That's basically a potential free ride for any call center operator, software development firm, or any other company that can outsource or telework it's staff.

random28345 10y ago
> Most businesses rent so property holders would feel the tax burden and rents would go up significantly. Property holders would feel the tax burden, decreasing the net revenue from rent, and decreasing property values. Rents are already at "market rates", and property values adjust to reflect the return on renting property. There might be some short-term price fluctuations as property owners try to maintain their existing margins, but an efficient market for real estate will stabilize rents close to the existing prices. The real losers would be those who purchased real estate assets expecting a consistent future return.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Rents are already at "market rates", Rents are at market rates given current market conditions. Increasing costs to hold property by imposing new taxes on property holders decreases supply of rental property -- that is, it reduces the quantity supplied at any given price point -- which, with a normally-shaped demand curve, decreases the quantity traded and increases the market clearing price. Market prices aren't independent of market conditions.
Roboprog 10y ago
So, if a business is in an office downtown, and there is little real benefit to forcing workers to drive to the common location every day, they would be incentivized to move out to make room for a business (or other activity) that values the shared location more? That might not be a bad thing. Not all "property" is real estate, either.

random28345 10y ago

> Most businesses rent so property holders would feel the tax burden and rents would go up significantly. Property holders would feel the tax burden, decreasing the net revenue from rent, and decreasing property values. Rents are already at "market rates", and property values adjust to reflect the return on renting property. There might be some short-term price fluctuations as property owners try to maintain their existing margins, but an efficient market for real estate will stabilize rents close to the existing prices. The real losers would be those who purchased real estate assets expecting a consistent future return.

dragonwriter 10y ago
> Rents are already at "market rates", Rents are at market rates given current market conditions. Increasing costs to hold property by imposing new taxes on property holders decreases supply of rental property -- that is, it reduces the quantity supplied at any given price point -- which, with a normally-shaped demand curve, decreases the quantity traded and increases the market clearing price. Market prices aren't independent of market conditions.

Roboprog 10y ago

So, if a business is in an office downtown, and there is little real benefit to forcing workers to drive to the common location every day, they would be incentivized to move out to make room for a business (or other activity) that values the shared location more? That might not be a bad thing. Not all "property" is real estate, either.