Community growth through land taxation
Plimmer, Frances & William McCluskey
For the property tax to be administratively feasible, socially acceptable and to generate revenue to fund local services, it is not necessary to develop a system based on complex assessments of property value. Simplified value-based systems have been shown to work well in developed countries and therefore their experience provides reliable evidence on which to base a similar system in countries with less developed real estate markets and data-base resources. This paper looks at a number of simplee value and non-value based approaches, and demonstrates how property tax systems can operate with minimal data, with the potential for future development as more data becomes available and as property valuation skills become more widespread and sophisticated. It is the contention of the paper that the use of such approaches has considerable merit in those jurisdictions where property transactional data is scarce and property valuation skills are in short supply. This paper also discusses the need to involve the (potential) taxpaying community in the development and implementation of any new tax regime, as well as the municipal authorities so that the services for which taxes are paid are both appreciated by the community and deliverable by the authorities.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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