Comment by xnx
18 hours ago
What's the societal value in trying to financially engineer land development? Is it to better utilize existing infrastructure? Charge each property proportionally for the road system and fallow land will naturally be developed to handle the taxes.
Property taxes are attractive because land doesn't move (unlike other forms of wealth) and it's easy to account for by tax collectors. There's also zero dead weight loss as you can't create more land. Taxes on land improvements are unattractive because they disincentivize owners from investing in their property. This leaves us with taxes on unimproved land being a very attractive option funding the government.
Good overview. What's the imperative for a government to incentivize owners to invest in their property? Seems like it's fine if the owner invests in their property or not.
It makes GDP go up