4 ms·

One possible fix is a law that states the government must purchase properties at the assessed price (or at something like 85% of the assessed price). Then if th

One possible fix is a law that states the government must purchase properties at the assessed price (or at something like 85% of the assessed price). Then if the tax office assesses your house at triple its actual value, well, they just handed you a giant pile of cash.

mjevans 10y ago
I actually like this idea. Lets take it a tiny bit further. To prevent the government from harassing you in to forced sales they don't intend to complete, make it a guaranteed minimum of the larger of 90% of the assessed value or 85% of the final sale price. Also the government, while the property is for sale, allows your continued use as previous and pays you 0.005% of the assessed value of the property //per month// for the privilege of listing it and allowing buyers to view it during normal business hours. At any time the government can cancel the deal and re-assess the value of the property, which shall be official retroactively for tax purposes (as far back as re-filing is allowed). At any time the current owners can cancel the deal, but then agree that the valued price is fair and valid as well as are required to hold the property for a full year after the cancellation.
repsilat 10y ago
Another fix is to let you set the value yourself, and treat it as a standing offer to sell (at some premium, maybe.)
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  That runs into the problem of incentivizing various poison-pill type strategies to make it expensive in other ways to accept the standing offer to sell. Like, a high-level mobster could easily list their properties well below market rate while letting it be known to potential buyers that actually trying to purchase the property means saying goodbye to your kneecaps. There's a similar corruption issue on the government-sets-buy-price side, where unscrupulous officials can transfer wealth to individuals, but at least the corruption there is much more able to be audited.
cududa 10y ago
I'm sure the troica will accept this and make it a plank of the next payment traunch...

mjevans 10y ago

I actually like this idea. Lets take it a tiny bit further. To prevent the government from harassing you in to forced sales they don't intend to complete, make it a guaranteed minimum of the larger of 90% of the assessed value or 85% of the final sale price. Also the government, while the property is for sale, allows your continued use as previous and pays you 0.005% of the assessed value of the property //per month// for the privilege of listing it and allowing buyers to view it during normal business hours. At any time the government can cancel the deal and re-assess the value of the property, which shall be official retroactively for tax purposes (as far back as re-filing is allowed). At any time the current owners can cancel the deal, but then agree that the valued price is fair and valid as well as are required to hold the property for a full year after the cancellation.

repsilat 10y ago

Another fix is to let you set the value yourself, and treat it as a standing offer to sell (at some premium, maybe.)

ThrustVectoring 10y ago
That runs into the problem of incentivizing various poison-pill type strategies to make it expensive in other ways to accept the standing offer to sell. Like, a high-level mobster could easily list their properties well below market rate while letting it be known to potential buyers that actually trying to purchase the property means saying goodbye to your kneecaps. There's a similar corruption issue on the government-sets-buy-price side, where unscrupulous officials can transfer wealth to individuals, but at least the corruption there is much more able to be audited.

cududa 10y ago

I'm sure the troica will accept this and make it a plank of the next payment traunch...