How do you feel about property tax?

How might a lack of property tax lead to property becoming unaffordable?

 

I suppose it wouldn't without a corresponding relaxation of inheritance taxes....

 

I've been a long time supporter of decentivizing the practice of residencial property investment to lower housing costs, in addition to supporting the elimination of property tax. Its of course a complicated issue being that residencial property investment is such a large part of our economy, but given how large a percentage of the average person's income goes to merely having a roof and a place to exist, I think we could reduce many of societies problems by simply reducing this one cost.

Without going into great detail, I think a gradual increase of property tax on additional residences beyond the primary residence while eliminating the property tax on each primary residence (and treating rentals differently) would put us on the track to reducing housing costs across the board.

 

Teacher pensions suck tons of the money up.

They give too much too easily. (Source, 6 retired teachers in my family)

 

If there is one thing the Gov should not touch, it's your home and land.

 

You make an excellent point. For all the wailing and howling that teachers' unions carry on about with their pay (while they're babysitting in the public skools), I know of very 'professions' that provide such excellent retirement benefits and payouts....

Bottom line: unless you are the parent of offspring that go to a public school, or that WENT to a public school, you should not (NOT) have to pay any 'school taxes' at ALL!

How would the property-owning public feel if I said that they should pay property tax money to send my DOG to obedience school?

 

Property taxes do undermine the concept of private property.

 

Yeah, they can tax my wife all they want.

 

Water bills and sewerage bills are on top of property taxes as are sales taxes, state income tax, gasoline taxes, excise taxes tolls and God knows whatever other taxes they can dream up.

 

No, we never truly own our homes/land. If your property can be taken from you for failure to pay taxes, you are not the real owner.
The government is the real owner.
P.S. I used to work with a lady from India who explained to me how homeownership is over there. She said once your home is paid for, you never have to pay anything else on it. She couldn't believe how a person could lose their homes for back taxes here in the USA.

 

And yet, the LION'S share -- way more than 50% of ALL residential property taxes -- go to support the 'Education Industry' -- i. e., the Teachers' Unions! The streets, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure that everyone must use can go to hell, but those ranks of glorified babysitters are always going to be well taken care of, and provided nice, 'phat' retirements when they slide off into the sunset.... .

 

I agree with the Op. The current crazy concept of a wealth tax is simply the expansion of the principle. At least with sales tax and income tax, you only pay once for each dollar. Property taxes occur over and over and over and even increase along the way. It should be banned. But them government should be reduced in size by a bunch, perhaps obviating the need for this kind of tax.

 

~ I do indeed feel we "own" property even though it's taxed. There are all kinds of restrictions and laws we must comply with or we would not be able to coexist. I do believe property tax should be controlled on an individual's primary residence.

~ Yes I see your point. However , would you like to live in the same environment as India ? I can understand the argument of reducing the tax on a primary residence , but without an income from residents the city is not a very pleasant place to live. It's a necessary part of our responsibility .

 

That's absurd, you could use that to justify not paying a lot of things.

Civilisation comes with a price tag. But you don't have to pay, you can move to Somalia.

 

Review a list of things that property taxes are used to pay for and you will see that all of them are things that all citizens in the tax district use (streets, roads, bridges, signage, street lighting, on and on and on) in order to live in a "civilized" locality. The sole exception is for public school systems -- which always gets the lion's share of the tax revenue -- and which is of measurable benefit ONLY to the students, and to their families/parents/guardians. Oh, and, of course, to the schools' bureaucrats and teachers' unions that suck a very nice living from those typically LARGE taxes!

Hint: does my tax district's taxpayers owe it to ME to pay for my DOG to go to obedience school...? Isn't 'society' benefited if "Fido" is well-behaved...? Parenthetically, do you imagine that taxpayers in Somalia would be amenable to such a theory...?

 

Property tax, is an inferior, chickenshit way to run govs. It is due to location location, thus poor areas get bunk. And, right wingers, bias towards property taxes, so they can CLAIM that they tax less. Right wingers eat that up.

Example, Arnie said, no new taxes. So, instead, he nickled and dimed us to death. That use tax scheme, hits low incomes far harder. Thus, it achieved the right wing goal of making those with less, pay more. Letting the rich off from paying. They even try to make it pay per use taxes, so the rich REALLY get off cheap.

 

Repeating nonsense doesn't change it's nature.

 

And what did I reply to you with that is "nonsense"...? You're so lazy and unsupportable in your viewpoint that you can't even make the effort to make your own coherent rebuttal.

Replies like the one you wrote are reflective of nothing but the nothingness that forms your "tax the hell out of everybody whether they benefit or not" biases.... If you can't be specific then just go away, and take your precious teachers' unions with you!

 

You and reality got divorced, a rebut would waste my time.

The Modern world is a package deal, not a buffet. The Mods won't let me be anywhere near as blunt as I would prefer to be.

 

More legit than income tax, in my opinion. I have a Georgian view on this, though. If I'm going to lay claim to natural resources and prevent others from accessing those resources, I don't mind paying for that privilege in a way that benefits those I'm excluding from those natural resources.

 

~ School Choice would sit much better with taxpayers. Probably be a hell-of-a-lot cheaper too !

 

I support Property Tax 100%. Millionaires and Billionaires spend millions and billions on luxury, while hundreds of thousands of people in USA are dying due to lack of medical care.

 

I agree 100%.

People who can not afford medical care are dying by hundreds of thousands.

 

Better use of tax money is sidewalks to the local pub?

 

During the Covid shutdown BILLIONAIRE Americans share has increased by $565 BILLION!!!! The rich have benefitted from the shutdown as the stock market has recovered most of it's earlier losses.