Land value taxation: a critique of 'Tax Reform, a Rational Solution'

Abstract

It has been argued by advocates of land value taxation that the centrepiece of tax reform should be land taxation, because of the efficiency, equity, simplicity and ethical advantages of taxation of the unearned increment in land values. This paper critiques these arguments. It is shown, by historical reference to the fate of land value taxation in the Australian states, to the ACT public leasehold system, and to the Commonwealth capital gains tax, that such tax reform will never succeed precisely because of its advantages, which adversely impinge on the interests of politically powerful landowners.