This tax would be based on how valuable your land is, not necessarily how nice (or terrible) the building that sits on it is. Slumlords would be targeted too, because they currently are taxed relatively low because their property value is low even if the land they have is valuable.
Furthermore, many of the uber wealthy hide/store their wealth in land & property where it doesn’t necessarily count as income if the property value increases; this is one of the reasons why the income tax is not able to actually hit billionaires because their wealth isn’t really counted as income. A land value tax could tap into that wealth and create a new source of revenue for the government.
The tax would also incentivize developers to build more efficient buildings relative to their floor-area ratio (FAR.) In case you are unaware, that is ratio of the lot area vs the total floor area (of all floors) in the building. Very valuable land typically has a high FAR ratio because they are usually in high-density urban environments.
What this would discourage is single-family homes because they have a low FAR ratio. Instead, multi-family homes would be encouraged which is better in the long term because (1) they are more sustainable, (2) are a big factor in building walkable environments in our cities, and (3) allows more housing to be built in desirable areas.
There are other advantages to a land-value tax, but these are ones that have sold me on the concept.
Sounds like another way for people with money and power to take what little those without it have.
I would argue this does the opposite, actually.
This tax would be based on how valuable your land is, not necessarily how nice (or terrible) the building that sits on it is. Slumlords would be targeted too, because they currently are taxed relatively low because their property value is low even if the land they have is valuable.
Furthermore, many of the uber wealthy hide/store their wealth in land & property where it doesn’t necessarily count as income if the property value increases; this is one of the reasons why the income tax is not able to actually hit billionaires because their wealth isn’t really counted as income. A land value tax could tap into that wealth and create a new source of revenue for the government.
The tax would also incentivize developers to build more efficient buildings relative to their floor-area ratio (FAR.) In case you are unaware, that is ratio of the lot area vs the total floor area (of all floors) in the building. Very valuable land typically has a high FAR ratio because they are usually in high-density urban environments.
What this would discourage is single-family homes because they have a low FAR ratio. Instead, multi-family homes would be encouraged which is better in the long term because (1) they are more sustainable, (2) are a big factor in building walkable environments in our cities, and (3) allows more housing to be built in desirable areas.
There are other advantages to a land-value tax, but these are ones that have sold me on the concept.
Why do you think that? A LVT is one of the ideas almost all NeoLiberals support.