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Why don't we just get rid of property taxes, and just keep income tax and sales tax and be done with it? I find it immoral to tax people on things they already

by dheera 6y ago

Why don't we just get rid of property taxes, and just keep income tax and sales tax and be done with it? I find it immoral to tax people on things they already own and have already paid taxes on in the form of the income they used to purchase said item. A big part of the upside of this will be cheaper rents for the rest of us, because right now, ultimately, real estate owners just pass the property tax responsibility to us in the form of higher rents.

xur17 6y ago
> A big part of the upside of this will be cheaper rents for the rest of us, because right now, ultimately, real estate owners just pass the property tax responsibility to us in the form of higher rents. In the short term, maybe, but in the long term this will just drive property values up even further, and I imagine it will make people more likely to hold onto property they aren't actively using.
snidane 6y ago
Somehow taxing peoples' labor is not immoral? From efficiency standpoint, property taxes will be more efficient than income taxes when it comes to expenditures for local infrastructure. Having only income taxes and no property/land taxes implies a direct subsidy from the middle class to aristocracy billionaire class. The exact reverse of what your intention seems to be? No property tax removes the need to return properties to the market, when underused. It would result in extremely high properry prices in the environment of zero interest rates. Pricing everybody out completely. And no, property taxes are not passed down in higher rents. They do the opposite - decrease rents - by making the market more liquid. See "tax incidence".
gremlinsinc 6y ago
All land in the united states should be collectively owned by the citizens. I think they should do away with or curtail other taxes for a Georgian style land-value-tax system that could also fully fund Universal Basic Income and Universal Healthcare.

by dheera 6y ago

xur17 6y ago

> A big part of the upside of this will be cheaper rents for the rest of us, because right now, ultimately, real estate owners just pass the property tax responsibility to us in the form of higher rents. In the short term, maybe, but in the long term this will just drive property values up even further, and I imagine it will make people more likely to hold onto property they aren't actively using.

snidane 6y ago

Somehow taxing peoples' labor is not immoral? From efficiency standpoint, property taxes will be more efficient than income taxes when it comes to expenditures for local infrastructure. Having only income taxes and no property/land taxes implies a direct subsidy from the middle class to aristocracy billionaire class. The exact reverse of what your intention seems to be? No property tax removes the need to return properties to the market, when underused. It would result in extremely high properry prices in the environment of zero interest rates. Pricing everybody out completely. And no, property taxes are not passed down in higher rents. They do the opposite - decrease rents - by making the market more liquid. See "tax incidence".

gremlinsinc 6y ago

All land in the united states should be collectively owned by the citizens. I think they should do away with or curtail other taxes for a Georgian style land-value-tax system that could also fully fund Universal Basic Income and Universal Healthcare.