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I know that. I was talking about council tax, not property tax. So we said the same thing. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. The problem is that the bands are up
by chatmasta 8y ago
I know that. I was talking about council tax, not property tax. So we said the same thing. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.
The problem is that the bands are updated
every couple of decades and are not aligned with rental prices. Two properties renting in the same price range could be in different council tax bands.
This pricing mechanism separates what should be a bidirectional market (tenant and owner) into a tridirectional market (tenant, owner and government). An extra entity means more transaction costs which result in friction. Friction in a market has bad downstream effects, so you don’t want to introduce friction into the real estate market.
Either the tenant should pay a tax based on the rental price, and/or the owner should pay a tax based on the property value. I just don’t see why it makes sense to have the tenant pay a tax based on the property value, in which he has no stake.