Land values are real capital – genuine wealth. Actually, no. These articles by Mark Wadsworth demolish some common misconceptions about land, which currently bedevil discussion on the subject. They have surfaced yet again in the wake of Piketty’s new book.  • Land is just capital like any other kind of capital (link to article) • House prices will plummet and wealth will be destroyed...

One of the arguments used against land value taxation is that “taxes should be broad-based”, sometimes expressed as “Why focus on one narrow asset class?” Clearly, it would be silly to try and raise a disproportionate amount of tax from any one particular “asset class” (cash, buildings, jewellery, works of art, plant and machinery or share prices) as the tax...

I have been in correspondence on another blog with a cowardly commentator who insists on calling himself Anonymous. His postings are as fine a collection of misconceptions and false conclusions about LVT as I have come across for a long time. He quotes as an authority a Paul Birch, a member of the UKIP, who has written a “Critique of Georgism”. Birch has obviously not gone back to the...

I’ve bought that land with my money. Why should I pay tax on it? The piece of land that someone buys would quickly lose its value if the state of civil order were to deteriorate, or people were to move away or if the community did not constantly sustain that value by ensuring that the physical and social infrastructure is kept in good order, all at the expense of the taxpayer. That is a valuable...

“Land value, if we assume land values fall from this tax what will happen to the debt lent against the property?” The borrower will still have the revenue stream to pay off the debt, provided that the switch from present taxes to mostly-LVT is phased over a few years. ” ie when the landowner come to refinance he may find as the debt has previously been lent using the property...

Wealth taxes are a very bad idea, and this example shows why. There is an old woman I know who lives on a small state pension and disability benefits, in sheltered accommodation. But her great grandfather was a well known Victorian painter and she inherited a couple of pictures. They need expensive conservation which she cannot afford. But under wealth tax someone would have to check to see what...

Yes. It would transform them. It is not the least of the beneficial effects of LVT.

In response to a question that was circulated recently amongst LVT supporters, I received a list which must come close to being exhaustive. I am not sure whether all the things on the list really are barriers, but even if they were, on that basis, it would still be reasonable to expect support for LVT from politicians, academics and journalists with a commitment to social reform – who together...

That’s my home. Get your dirty tax hands off it Homeowners instinctively hate a mansion tax. They feel their hard-earned bricks and mortar should be beyond the State. So wrote Matthew Parris in today’s Times. The article is worth reading and so are the dozens of comments that follow,

The Sunday Express last week came out with an article condemning what was referred to as a “land levy”. ‘A PLAN to scrap council tax in favour of a land levy was condemned last night as penalising hard-working middle-class families. The Land Value Tax was proposed by Compass, a Left-wing think tank close to Gordon Brown’s inner circle. It would raise even more than the £25.6billion...