måndag 16 juni 2008

Peverse incentives

I have just completed my online tax return and paid what I owe them using the online payment system. They have changed the forms which was a bit of a nuisance as I was all geared up to filling in the old ones.

Now I have got my flat refurbished and let I have had to pay a lot more tax out of the rent I am getting. No problem about that, but until last year the place was empty and going up in value and all I was paying was the Council Tax.

The perversity of this is that the system, in effect, rewards people who do nothing with their property. Where is the sense in this?

So what would I suggest. That the same tax is paid regardless of what people do with their property. The same amount should be payable regardless of whether they leave it as an empty site or develop up to the maximum the planners will allow.

Such a tax is known as Land Value Taxation.

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