Debate Magazine

Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (447)

Posted on the 21 November 2018 by Markwadsworth @Mark_Wadsworth

Exchange on Twitter with CityUnslicker, who has apparently left the real world far behind to a parallel universe where democracy has been suspended and you are not allowed to draw analogies from what actually happens in the here and now:
MW: Seeing as govt spending goes largely into higher rental value of land, fairest kind of tax is a service charge based on rental values aka land value tax. The more taxes it replaces, the better.SDLT, council tax and business rates should be first to go.
CU: You can kiss goodbye to the high street then even more so than now with that policy.
MW: What's morally or economically wrong with paying rent? Why should public services be paid for by group A (workers and businesses) for the benefit of group B (landowners and banks)? That's Communism under a different name.
CU: The state owning all the land and the [sic] deciding who can rent it off them and what price IS communism.
MW: Lying again! Here's the actual system: Landowners continue to own land. Market in land continues between private buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers agree prices, landlords and tenants agree rental values. Govt levies a service charge on value of services provided.
CU: I [sic] your logic is faulty. If a renter can't pay the government will foreclaose. If the government raises the tax high then it will acquire more land. The logical procession [sic] of LVT is to enact communism. There won't be a free market in land when the got has acquired all the land!
MW: yes, govt will foreclose, sell land and buildings to another private buyer, retain the arrears and pass the balance to the previous owner.
That's why collection rates for business rates (quasi-LVT) are the highest of all taxes for the least faff on either side. The simple threat that the govt *could* do this means that 96% of payers pay in full on time.
So your claim is as fatuous as me saying "if a borrower can't pay the mortgage, the bank will foreclose. If the banks increase interest rates, then they acquire more land. The logical progression of banking is to enact bank control over the whole economy". That's never happened.


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