Tax Land, Not Buildings, to Spur Development
If you want less of something, tax it. That's why easing taxes on buildings can help cities grow.
This article is part of The Rooftop, a blog and multimedia series from New America’s Future of Land and Housing program, featuring insights from experts across diverse fields.
Local governments in the United States will collect more than two trillion dollars in property taxes—the single largest source of local revenue. While treated as a single levy on the total value of property, property taxes are actually two taxes disguised as one:
- a tax on buildings, and
- a tax on land.
In a typical mid-sized city, around two-thirds of the tax on a given property come from the building tax, and one-third comes from the land tax.
Author's summary: Taxing land instead of buildings can boost development.
Taxing buildings harms our communities by discouraging development, while taxing land helps our communities by discouraging speculation.
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