Report from Germany, Part Two
Oct. 3rd, 2021 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenContinuing with what Professor Dirk Lohr said over Zoom on Thursday: Housing should not be more expensive. Theoretically, land value taxation should not be shifted to tenants, but, due to regulations of the German housing markets, land value taxes may be shifted to tenants in the short run.
He also said that the case for land value taxation is difficult to understand, and difficult to explain to most people. Arguments have to be adapted to the audience. He mentioned the effect on land prices (tax land, and the selling prices of land go down; tax most other things, and the price goes up). There is also the benefit of tax simplification.
There was some discussion afterward. I used my German to thank Professor Lohr for speaking, and also for doing actual work, while I feared that we mostly talk. Someone else read my written comment, not pronouncing it correctly, but Professor Lohr spoke well of my German; in a second comment, also read by someone else, I said that I didn’t speak it that well, although I could translate it with a dictionary; I had been able to speak it better as a student.
Joshua Vincent said that the situation in Baden-Wurttemberg reminded him of places in Pennsylvania, where they attempted to implement two-rate taxes, but with outdated and inaccurate assessments. There was some discussion of that, with someone saying that as a matter of fairness, assessments should be accurate, but land value taxation was efficient even with poor assessments, since people’s tax bills didn’t go up when they improved their property.
Someone else talked about the incidence of taxes, and proposed that the mortgage holders should be treated as owners, in a pro-rated way, and required to pay a share of the land tax.
He also said that the case for land value taxation is difficult to understand, and difficult to explain to most people. Arguments have to be adapted to the audience. He mentioned the effect on land prices (tax land, and the selling prices of land go down; tax most other things, and the price goes up). There is also the benefit of tax simplification.
There was some discussion afterward. I used my German to thank Professor Lohr for speaking, and also for doing actual work, while I feared that we mostly talk. Someone else read my written comment, not pronouncing it correctly, but Professor Lohr spoke well of my German; in a second comment, also read by someone else, I said that I didn’t speak it that well, although I could translate it with a dictionary; I had been able to speak it better as a student.
Joshua Vincent said that the situation in Baden-Wurttemberg reminded him of places in Pennsylvania, where they attempted to implement two-rate taxes, but with outdated and inaccurate assessments. There was some discussion of that, with someone saying that as a matter of fairness, assessments should be accurate, but land value taxation was efficient even with poor assessments, since people’s tax bills didn’t go up when they improved their property.
Someone else talked about the incidence of taxes, and proposed that the mortgage holders should be treated as owners, in a pro-rated way, and required to pay a share of the land tax.
