FAQs and objections - Land Value Tax Campaign

Is LVT a wealth tax?

Written on 24 August 2010. Posted in Land is wealth.

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...

Didn’t Murray Rothbard demolish the case for LVT?

Written on 19 August 2010. Posted in Practicalities.

Rothbard put the case against LVT in Critique of Georgism and Reply to Georgists They are demolished in A Critique of Murray Rothbard’s Critique of the Georgist Argument

From Tax Justice Network

Written on 6 August 2010. Posted in Practicalities.

“If they (the wealthy) don’t want to pay land taxes, they shift all their income-generating assets somewhere else (that won’t subject them to land value tax.) Offshore. They have escaped the land value tax. None of this is to say that land value taxes aren’t good. Quite the contrary. It’s just that they can only ever be part of a solution.” Can someone please...

How can I avoid LVT?

Written on 9 April 2010. Posted in Practicalities.

I work away from home all the time and basically live out of a hotel all week. I only use my house at the weekend (which is for sale anyway). When I sell, I’m considering staying in hotels permanently. So under LVT would I effectively be paying no tax?

Land isn’t a primary factor of production any more

Written on 7 February 2010. Posted in Land is not important.

From a discussion group… “Land isn’t a primary factor in a knowledge based, high technology economy. It’s a primary factor in an agricultural economy. You are a few hundred years behind the times.“ Why does this idea keep popping up?

Would LVT disrupt financial services?

Written on 11 January 2010. Posted in Land is wealth.

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

Absurdest-ever argument against LVT

Written on 8 January 2010. Posted in Ability to pay.

From the “Guardian’s Comment is Free” website, this must surely deserve some sort of prize as the absurdest-ever argument against LVT“So someone who earns £1million a year and owns no land (or lives in a small flat) pays no tax, and a pensioner on nothing but the state pension who happens to live in an average house in Battersea, inner London, that he bought for £200 in the...

Would LVT really hit the homeowner?

Written on 7 December 2009. Posted in Ability to pay.

LVT advocates tend to hold back through fear of an angry reaction from homeowners, but consider this. Most land value is in land used for productive purposes, that is, land used for wealth creation other than agriculture. That must be so. The most productive land is not used for housing. But the value of land in commercial use is presently depressed by taxes that fall on business. The chief amongst...

What are the barriers to LVT?

Written on 5 December 2009. Posted in Land is wealth.

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...

Forestry would become uneconomic under LVT

Written on 15 November 2009. Posted in Business and farming.

“The reason why such asset taxes are a bad idea is because there is no obvious reason why the mere possession of an illiquid asset should correspond with ability to pay on an annual or any other periodic basis. Consider planting a forest for commercial timber for example. Each year, the value of the timber goes up, but according to you the owner should have to pay a tax on the rental value...

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