UK's Institute for Fiscal Studies Agrees with OECD (and us): Tax Land Values for a Healthier Economy

The clocks ticks on bad tax policy as the big dogs jump in.

Not too long ago, a Blair wallah sniffed at a land value tax as akin to the window tax of 18th Century yore. In the face of a very possible recurring recession, the easy condescension is increasingly out of place...

Background: UrbanTools always looks internationally to developments in other think tanks and nations for a sense that old methods taxation and finance cease to be based in terms of left or right, but rather on what works and what doesn't.

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UK Housing Bubble - Honey I Shrunk the Equity

The UK's housing bubble is bursting...http://www.socialhacker.co.uk

It appears that a critical mass is fast approaching in the UK. The idea that wealth is created by skating on property bubbles has ended.

Last year, the OECD finally got around to the notion that taxing land values, (i.e. community created economic rent) was a more stable platform for society than chasing bubbles or watching wages and business shrivel under traditional taxes. Now,the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies has come out full bore for a change in thinking and policy following up with the controversial yet respected Mirlees Review of 2011.

Killer take away from the article in the Guardian?

"In particular, the IFS said: "Replacing business rates with a land value tax would remove a damaging bias against property-intensive production."

Respected tax policy economist Stuart Adam of the IFS gave a recent presentation on the subject, and it's good watching.

One clue that the IFS has been on a correct path, is that they are slagged from left and right, depending on who's in power. It's a familiar feeling to those who always wonder if there is a different way.