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Couldn’t you just tax based on a percentage of the year a house sits vacant?
by ninkendo 7y ago
Couldn’t you just tax based on a percentage of the year a house sits vacant?
- ethanbond 7y agoEven better, just aggressively tax owners based on the land value. This requires them to either eat high costs for their speculation, or use it for income-producing purposes (someplace to live or someplace to work).
- sumedh 7y ago> just aggressively tax owners based on the land value. What about old people who bought the house long time back when it was cheap but dont have good source of income to pay the inflated tax?
- larsiusprime 7y agoHigh enough land value tax, consistently applied, will make the land cheaper and affordable to said old couple, because it neutralizes the phenomenon that land continuously increases in value as long as the population keeps growing.
- bradleyjg 7y agoWhat about the old people who didn't buy a house a long time back and now face high rents? Why is it always a selective group of old people we are supposed to carefully design policy to perfectly accommodate?
- wffurr 7y agoThen they can cash out, realize their gains, buy a modest bungalow, and live out their golden years in style. Seems fine.
- jrd259 7y agoThat "modest bungalow" might be 50 kilometers away. These "old folks" lose their entire local social network, and perhaps have to buy a car.
- internet_user 7y agoa car that they might not even be able to drive. I never understood why people consider equity to be essentially equivalent to liquid money.
- 2arrs2ells 7y agoBecause home equity is highly liquid. You can refinance your mortgage (and take money out), or take out a reverse mortgage (which pays you monthly in exchange for eventual ownership), or a home equity loan. Tons of ways to turn your home equity into cash.
- wffurr 7y agoIn a sane world, they could buy or rent a reasonably sized apartment in the new development going up nearby.
- mdszy 7y agoSucks to suck. Sell your land and get all that value back, that's how life works when you're old.
- topkai22 7y agoProvide an exemption or inflation control for the standard parcel size in an area when used as a primary residence.
- standeven 7y agoThey can defer their taxes at a low interest rate. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/annual-property-tax/defer-taxes https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/annu...
- refurb 7y agoWhat happens when the accumulated taxes oustripes the value of the home?
- anonymoushn 7y agoThose poor millionaires. My heart bleeds for them.
- BoiledCabbage 7y agoEssentially the rules should be that who ever benefited 50 years ago should be given priority to continue benefiting now?
- pyrophane 7y agoI'm not sure I understand why that would be better. Wouldn't that also really penalize individual homeowners and renters?
- jachee 7y agoThat could be alleviated by having the owner provide proof that they live on the property they own, and then granting them an exemption. Half-exemptions for rent-seekers who can prove 90%+ occupancy.
- dredmorbius 7y agoApplying a tax commensurate with income-earning potential is the usual explanation. Given the wide range of possible incomes to various professions, this can be problematic. Your $7.25/hr federal minimum wage worker ($14,500/year) competes against a $290k/yr SV tech worker, with 20x the income. Unless that's mitigated by other factors (residence size, amenities, etc.), a land tax might prove further discriminatory. But in general, a tax that's sufficient to kill the prospects of real estate as simply a bankable nonproductive asset would be a net benefit.
- bawana 7y agowhy should property tax only be a function of property? Shouldn't property tax be a little like income tax and also be a function of the 'ability to pay'= Function(wealth, income,dependents)
- dredmorbius 7y agoThere are ... some ways of achieving this somewhat equitably. One of the notions behind property tax is to make efficient use of land -- someone simply squatting on a property and not contributing to the local economy is a less efficient use than someone who's actively engaged. In particular, high-density uses are preferable to low, where land value is high. That conflicts with the notion of neighbourhood and social stability. Kicking out pensioners (or young families) simply because they cannot afford to pay taxes ... is highly disruptive. For a sufficiently growing market, it need not be a necessary problem, tough much experience with gentrification (or its less genteel earlier forms of land appropriation and expropriation) show. One possible compromise is to allow taxes to accumulate, but to factor against the value of the property itself. When the property is sold (or transfered in estate), those taxes come due, and are debited agains the value of the property. You don't evict those unable to pay, but the benefits of squatting do come with an (ultimate) cost. That cost is also a bankable asset to the government authority, who can consider this a future receivable.
- internet_user 7y agoAt this rate, Georgism will be tried in Vancouver first, it seems.
- throw_456721 7y agoMaybe building more houses would also be an option?
- refurb 7y agoI think the challenge is enforcing it. I believe the BC law exempts empty yet available (for rent sign). Your going to have to have an army of govt workers checking the validity of all claims they aren’t empty.
- alphydan 7y agoin the age of deep learning, streetview and daily satellite images it should be possible to determine automatically. Of course such an operation opens the door to all sorts of surveillance.
- topkai22 7y agoOnly the high value suspicious ones. If a residence in a high value area is claimed as occupied, but no one put it on their drivers licenses/ID or any other existing government interaction then request additional documentation. Let neighbors report vacant property and require multi-family building administrators to report suspiciously under utilized units.
- refurb 7y agoLet neighbors report vacant property and require multi-family building administrators to report suspiciously under utilized units. Jesus. Rat on your neighbors? Sounds like the Stasi.
- Erem 7y ago> neighbors A permanently absentee landlord is not a neighbor, and reporting a vacant lot next to my home is not ratting.
- njarboe 7y agoDo you really want the government to have a system set up to know when your property is vacant? I don't.
- pyrophane 7y agoI would be okay with, for example, demonstrating that a property was my primary address, perhaps via affidavit, or in the case where I was renting, providing a signed lease. Your comment makes it sound like the Gov't would start requiring some incredibly invasive monitoring. I think it more likely would merely require documentation and sworn statements similar to what we have long done with just about everything that is taxed.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoIf it helps the housing crisis, then maybe.
- kjs3 7y agoHow would you assess that? Seems like it would be easy to game such a system.