Lecture from Down Under

Thursday evening, I listened to a Zoom lecture by Karl Fitzgerald, Director of Advocacy at Prosper Australia, talking about successes and setbacks for land value taxation in Australia, and also making mention of the indigenous Australians, and the raw deals they’ve been given. A federal land tax began in 1910, and there are and have been state and local land taxes. There has been progress, but the vested interests have often succeeded in striking back, whether by getting rid of LVT outright, or by cutting rates, imposing thresholds for land taxation, and so on.

A threshold where you don’t pay tax on your first $100,000 of land value might seem good for the poor and middle class, but these are the people who pay in other taxes what is not collected from land rents. Also, if I understood Mr. Fitzgerald correctly, in at least one jurisdiction, the threshold rises with the average valuation, so when land prices climb, someone can own more hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of land without having to pay tax on it.

But then, there are good things like the Canberra Land Rent Scheme, and the removal of the tennis court exemption. It used to be that a rich man could buy the neighboring lot, put a tennis court on it, and get a tax exemption by declaring it his primary residence. But no more!

To be continued.

The Red Queen’s Race

I got two cases on my Expedited docket this week, and dealt with both of them; one was a printer’s rush calling for me to make a minor correction in a previous allowance, and the other was an After Final. I got one ordinary amendment on my Amended docket, and finished an Office Action on an existing amendment, so I’m back at two amendments on my Amended docket.

I also finished an Office Action on my oldest Regular New case, and I sent out a written restriction on another Regular New. In that case, I had spoken with the attorney on the phone about having him and his client elect which set of claims I should examine, but I hadn’t heard anything back, so I did a written restriction.