3 ms·

I dream of the day when a modern nation-state's expenses can be paid by land value tax and land value tax alone.

d4rti 6y ago
26,570 GBP / hectare / year, if all land was priced equally to replace total UK government revenue. [1] 1: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=uk+total+government+revenue+%2F+uk+land+area https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=uk+total+government+re...
- mrow84 6y ago
  An interesting figure! For easy comparison with the figures in the article it is around £10,000 / acre year - makes you wonder what some of the landowners listed would do in such a situation (and makes it obvious why they would fight very hard to prevent it coming about).
- iudqnolq 6y ago
  You're assuming all land is privately owned, which isn't true in the UK. Large tracts are owned by the government, the royal family, and nobody.
tim333 6y ago
Not exactly a land value tax but zero tax Monaco is funded basically by the state owning and renting out property. I think similar in Dubai. There are some practical advantages - if you've got a patch of dessert and charge tax on it you only can get so much but if you develop a luxury apartment complex on said land and rent them out you can get rather more. The state has an advantage over private developers as it can grant itself permission to build whatever. I sometimes think you could do something like that in places like London - the state build lux accom to replace tax revenue rather than letting private developers clean up.
est31 6y ago
Kinda the opposite thing is happening right now in Germany. When introduced in 1968, the value added tax was 10%. Now it's 19%. Similarly, it was free for trucks to use the German highways. Now they have to pay fees. Only recently they expanded that to the federal roads as well (Bundesstraßen). As for the land, generally the federal government sells most of it to developers instead of developing it themselves (or letting developers develop and then charge rent on the land).
lscotte 6y ago
Sounds like you have some terrible nightmares!

26,570 GBP / hectare / year, if all land was priced equally to replace total UK government revenue. [1] 1: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=uk+total+government+revenue+%2F+uk+land+area https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=uk+total+government+re...

mrow84 6y ago
An interesting figure! For easy comparison with the figures in the article it is around £10,000 / acre year - makes you wonder what some of the landowners listed would do in such a situation (and makes it obvious why they would fight very hard to prevent it coming about).
iudqnolq 6y ago
You're assuming all land is privately owned, which isn't true in the UK. Large tracts are owned by the government, the royal family, and nobody.

tim333 6y ago

Not exactly a land value tax but zero tax Monaco is funded basically by the state owning and renting out property. I think similar in Dubai. There are some practical advantages - if you've got a patch of dessert and charge tax on it you only can get so much but if you develop a luxury apartment complex on said land and rent them out you can get rather more. The state has an advantage over private developers as it can grant itself permission to build whatever. I sometimes think you could do something like that in places like London - the state build lux accom to replace tax revenue rather than letting private developers clean up.

est31 6y ago

Kinda the opposite thing is happening right now in Germany. When introduced in 1968, the value added tax was 10%. Now it's 19%. Similarly, it was free for trucks to use the German highways. Now they have to pay fees. Only recently they expanded that to the federal roads as well (Bundesstraßen). As for the land, generally the federal government sells most of it to developers instead of developing it themselves (or letting developers develop and then charge rent on the land).

lscotte 6y ago

Sounds like you have some terrible nightmares!