Center for the Study of Economics - Company Message
Incentive Taxation Blog

United Kingdom

Cymraeg treth tir gwerth (Welsh land value tax)

Welsh Land Value Tax

Wales AP Member Mark Drakeford

Without fear of contradiction, it is easy to assert that the concept of tax reformnowfrom global to local has taken off in the past three years.  The global economic downturn still lasts, and postindustrial areas in North America, Europe are in particular need of a way to level the playing field with more efficient and competitive Asian, African and Latin American markets.
Although governments may dither, leaders have emerged all over the world ready to challenge dominant, smug yet failed policies.

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.

Noted UK Think Tank: Tax Land Values

Institute for Fiscal Studies take a look at economic growth and community sustainability in the UKInstitute for Fiscal Studies Concludes LVT is best for local finance
 
 
The Institute for Fiscal Studies as well-respected civic research group has been working on a non-partisan basis for many years in the UK. With LVT debate reaching the highest levels of government, the Institute tackled the issues of local government finance in the the Mirrlees Review.
 
The ISF's Stuart Adam provides both background and a matrix of preference taxation plans.  UrbanTools might quibble with the finding that land and building values will be difficult to split, as well as concluding taxation of residential buildings is a good facet of tax policy, but overall it's an unjaundiced look at a program that may provide useful revenues with blocking economic growth and community sustainability.