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Renters pay property tax indirectly because most landlords select rents high enough to cover their mortgage, insurance, maintenance, and property tax.
by UncleMeat 4y ago
Renters pay property tax indirectly because most landlords select rents high enough to cover their mortgage, insurance, maintenance, and property tax.
- yellowapple 4y agoNot if the tax is specifically on the unimproved value of land (i.e. property value minus buildings or other improvements). Landlords are already charging as much in rent as they can get away with; raising rent even further would increase vacancies - and a land value tax would directly penalize keeping units vacant.
- UncleMeat 4y agoSure if we change the way that property tax is assessed then it’ll no longer be true that renters are indirectly paying property tax. But that’s not relevant to the thread topic.
- yellowapple 4y agoIt's very relevant to the thread topic. If the goal is to minimize the regressiveness of our tax system, then a land value tax is very hard to beat. The only one better from a wealth redistribution standpoint is maybe a wealth tax, but unlike other forms of wealth you can't exactly move land to an offshore account.