Quote from PHOENIX TRADING:
Honestly I don't think very highly of the plan esp in light of our current information economy.
1)How do you justify a rural farmer being hit with high taxes and a company say like amazon running on a very small platform space of
servers paying virtually no tax at all.
Honestly this is one of the only areas that is difficult with this tax in the modern world. Most other concerns are trivial and indicate that people don't have a true grasp of what a tax is.
Anyway, the issue is that we no longer simply have material land. WE also have virtual real estate. It is my contention that every business uses either or both of those. Farmers are an extreme case of the first, whereas, financial companies are an extreme case of the second. IMO, it's not unreasonable in any argument about LVT to consider the idea of "virtual" LVT.
Amazon is a special case in that it takes advantage of the virtual and physical system while using a very small physical footprint. For this reason I think that certain excise taxes bring in the benefits of the "fairtax" plan without the drawbacks, and keep the benefits of the LVT plan. So amazon would be taxed based on gas tax, some LVT, and maybe a virtual LVT.
2)Next is, the tax rate will always go up because they are not making anymore land last time I checked. Of course the fed gubbermint could sell it's land but that would be a one time event.
That is sort of the entire idea. The amount of land is fixed. The quantity cannot easily be manipulated (like printing money to create wage inflation).
3) Related to #2 above who in their right mind would buy property that would be taxed highly but restricted from becoming a productive asset by epa etc etc.
Keep in mind that the value of a piece of land is directly tied to its potential use. If there is a certain restriction on a piece of land, that land significantly drops in value, which greatly reduces the inherent tax burden. As an extreme case, any land that has no inherent value, also has no inherent tax burden. There is currently desert land in the US that sells for about $10/acre.
4) I predict we would see the re-advent of hoovervilles on abandoned property because it wouldn't be worth the taxes in the long run.
There is no incentive for Hoovervilles because someone is liable for taxes on that property. Think about it a little more deeply.
