4 ms·

I would say that most of the problems with wealthy people not paying their "fair" share (what ever that might be) is the fact that people are taxed on income an

I would say that most of the problems with wealthy people not paying their "fair" share (what ever that might be) is the fact that people are taxed on income and corporations are taxed on profit. Many wealthy people do what they want to do with companies (taxed only on profits) or non-profits (not taxed at all!), while the average Joe is taxed on their income. It would be a good idea to have both people and companies taxed the same way. Personally I think it would be good to get rid of income and corporate taxes all together and replace it with a land value tax. So much more freedom, less regulation, and crazy tax loopholes.

b3kart 5y ago
Would the land tax work well with, say, tech companies though? To me it seems those take advantage of completely different resources. Internet infrastructure, data, attention, you name it.
jacobr1 5y ago
The answer seems to be that we should tax capital gains and income at the same level. This would disincentive investment on the margin, but it seems like it might be the better tradeoff. Alternatively you can go the other rough and tax consumption (progressively) which would benefit accumulation.
lordnacho 5y ago
Why not just consider every person a corporation? If it make 100K and it costs you 90K to run your family (yes there will be special rules) you pay tax on the 10K. If you make 1M and it costs you 400K to run your family, you pay on the 600K. If you spend more than you earn, you carry forward the loss. Land value tax makes sense on paper, but implementation is a huge question. Who decides the price, how often is it revised, how do you make it transparent? Maybe "solve" that issue with a trick: everyone decides their own value and thus their own tax, but whatever value they decide is a an offer to the market: if you think the person is underpricing their land, you can buy it from them at that price.
- njarboe 5y ago
  Most places in the US have had property taxes for centuries, so these implementation problems have already been solved (not always very well, but money is collected). Disentangling the land value from any improvements is a bit tricky, but not much more than determining the value of the total property. I have thought that valuating your own land could possibly work, but people would have to have a more detached sense of land/home ownership for that to work. People get emotionally attached to where they live, but maybe encouraging people to be less attached would help many current problems in society cause by NIMBY issues.

b3kart 5y ago

Would the land tax work well with, say, tech companies though? To me it seems those take advantage of completely different resources. Internet infrastructure, data, attention, you name it.

jacobr1 5y ago

The answer seems to be that we should tax capital gains and income at the same level. This would disincentive investment on the margin, but it seems like it might be the better tradeoff. Alternatively you can go the other rough and tax consumption (progressively) which would benefit accumulation.

lordnacho 5y ago

Why not just consider every person a corporation? If it make 100K and it costs you 90K to run your family (yes there will be special rules) you pay tax on the 10K. If you make 1M and it costs you 400K to run your family, you pay on the 600K. If you spend more than you earn, you carry forward the loss. Land value tax makes sense on paper, but implementation is a huge question. Who decides the price, how often is it revised, how do you make it transparent? Maybe "solve" that issue with a trick: everyone decides their own value and thus their own tax, but whatever value they decide is a an offer to the market: if you think the person is underpricing their land, you can buy it from them at that price.

njarboe 5y ago
Most places in the US have had property taxes for centuries, so these implementation problems have already been solved (not always very well, but money is collected). Disentangling the land value from any improvements is a bit tricky, but not much more than determining the value of the total property. I have thought that valuating your own land could possibly work, but people would have to have a more detached sense of land/home ownership for that to work. People get emotionally attached to where they live, but maybe encouraging people to be less attached would help many current problems in society cause by NIMBY issues.