Property taxes can be simple.
Any tax I'm forced to pay, I should be able to understand. For example, sales tax is easy...add 6% to the price of a particular good. That's not to difficult.
According to bureaucrats, property taxes are very complex and on the surface this appears to be the case. Let me make it VERY, VERY SIMPLE. Government bases its income on its budget. In other words, if the budget goes up, so do your property taxes.
Have you heard one elected official say, we need to tackle the budget and cut the fat? NO, nor will you.
If we can't pay bills, we cut cable or movie night. But, to our State and Federal Governments, tax payers are one big endless ATM.
Let's clear up one misconception: We don't pay property taxes, we pay real estate taxes. Land is technically referred to as "real property." Real property combined with the fixtures (homes) located on that land is "real estate."
A fair and equal property tax should only tax property, not homes or other improvements to homes. If you own 1 acre you should pay a set amount of money. If you have half an acre than you should pay half as much. What you do on your land is of no concern to the government. Passing an equitable property tax would be easy.
The reason the "property taxes" are so cumbersome is design. It's hard to fight what you don't understand. But unless spending is controlled and every dollar accounted for, even an equitable property tax will increase.
Plain & Simple: First, government must cut spending to reduce the need for the tax in the first place. Second, while I can argue that taxes are unfair in general, they can be equitable. Finally, the only reason spending is out of control and taxes are unequal...our elected officials (who set the budget) spend too much money!
According to bureaucrats, property taxes are very complex and on the surface this appears to be the case. Let me make it VERY, VERY SIMPLE. Government bases its income on its budget. In other words, if the budget goes up, so do your property taxes.
Have you heard one elected official say, we need to tackle the budget and cut the fat? NO, nor will you.
If we can't pay bills, we cut cable or movie night. But, to our State and Federal Governments, tax payers are one big endless ATM.
Let's clear up one misconception: We don't pay property taxes, we pay real estate taxes. Land is technically referred to as "real property." Real property combined with the fixtures (homes) located on that land is "real estate."
A fair and equal property tax should only tax property, not homes or other improvements to homes. If you own 1 acre you should pay a set amount of money. If you have half an acre than you should pay half as much. What you do on your land is of no concern to the government. Passing an equitable property tax would be easy.
The reason the "property taxes" are so cumbersome is design. It's hard to fight what you don't understand. But unless spending is controlled and every dollar accounted for, even an equitable property tax will increase.
Plain & Simple: First, government must cut spending to reduce the need for the tax in the first place. Second, while I can argue that taxes are unfair in general, they can be equitable. Finally, the only reason spending is out of control and taxes are unequal...our elected officials (who set the budget) spend too much money!
You are basically talking about land value taxation.
www.urbantools.org
http://www.indianalandvaluetax.org/
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Taxes also grow due to our collective sense of entitlement. Politicians get elected by promising to fix everything and never mentioning the cost. After the bill comes due for the new entitlement another politician comes along and rails against high taxes. The debate should begin before we legislate more government spending.
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