Would a Land/wealth Value Tax help first time buyers and unlock the property market?

grizzly1911

CLAPTON wrote: »

the same as now if you can't pay council tax
that is you get state benefits

Or drain their limited capital, until they are a mere husk then cliam state benefits to pay another tax (or in reality get relief from it)?

grizzly1911

CLAPTON wrote: »

council tax is already paid; land taxes are about redistributing other taxes not collecting more (government can always increase total tax take if they want; VAT, petrol, booze, train fares, services etc)

Governments don't tend to reduce taxes, IME they have only ever gone up. One of only two certainties in life.

In some cases they will reduce a headline rate to replace it by another.

In the same way that Stamp Duty is being sidestepped by the wealthy the suggested tax would just hit Janet and John once more. Avoidance schemes would pop out, all over, for those with means.

Land has no proven value until it is sold, would this tax be allowed to go up and down when house/land prices fall as they are doing now in many places outside of the SE?

Government already has compulsory purchase available to it if it wants to unlock/force the issue.

CLAPTON

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Governments don't tend to reduce taxes, IME they have only ever gone up. One of only two certainties in life.

In some cases they will reduce a headline rate to replace it by another.

In the same way that Stamp Duty is being sidestepped by the wealthy the suggested tax would just hit Janet and John once more. Avoidance schemes would pop out, all over, for those with means.

Land has no proven value until it is sold, would this tax be allowed to go up and down when house/land prices fall as they are doing now in many places outside of the SE?

Government already has compulsory purchase available to it if it wants to unlock/force the issue.

within any overall level tax take there are some taxes that are worse than others; currently we have a council tax based on the value of a property in 1991; we have stamp duty that is in my view a very bad tax

on the whole land/housing related tax have lower levels of tax avoidance than most over taxes

and the level of tha tax and the valuation would change over time to reflect the real situation on the ground

compulsory purchase is a very heavy handed and expensvie way to deal with these issues and in any way it returns no value to the community

abaxas

Council tax inversion and base on use would solve the problem.

That £1k for a 4 person family in a 3 bed house. £8k for 1 person in a 5 bed etc.

CLAPTON

abaxas wrote: »

Council tax inversion and base on use would solve the problem.

That £1k for a 4 person family in a 3 bed house. £8k for 1 person in a 5 bed etc.

I'm not sure how this would address commercial/residential land usage or how to mange the change from (say) agricultural land to that with planning permission and how that increase in value shoudl be shared with the community

also I think one needs to go for something that would seem at least a little fair and more reasonable that your proposal

however land tax system does have the feature of separating out the land value from the value of the property built on it or it usage so it could encompass your suggestion

grizzly1911

CLAPTON wrote: »

within any overall level tax take there are some taxes that are worse than others; currently we have a council tax based on the value of a property in 1991; we have stamp duty that is in my view a very bad tax

Doesn't really matter when the houses were valued as long as in any given borough the same groups of houses continue to be taxed as the value increases in line. A band E house in 1991 would probably still be a band E house in 2011.

Stamp duty itself is no worse than any other tax. I think the way it is implemented is bad. For instance increase levels should only be charged on the threshold up not on the whole purchase. that would remove the blockages at the threshold points.

on the whole land/housing related tax have lower levels of tax avoidance than most over taxes

and the level of tha tax and the valuation would change over time to reflect the real situation on the ground

compulsory purchase is a very heavy handed and expensvie way to deal with these issues and in any way it returns no value to the community

I thought the thread was about freeing up land/houses/ building not tax benefit to the exchequer, apart from the eventual Stamp Duty on sale so "value to the community" is not relevant. Whether tax is raised locally or centrally, we still pay it and it all goes into one pot. Whitehall just pull the levers differently.