[graeme]

Evasion is illegal. i.e. not paying your income taxes

Avoidance is legal. i.e. if there was a local luxury goods tax, you could decide to either:

1. Not buy luxury goods, or

2. Buy luxury goods from some other area, without a tax

A local luxury goods tax would be highly likely to destroy the local luxury goods industry without actually lowering luxury good consumption, as such a tax can easily and legally be avoided.

Whereas, local property taxes can only be avoided by moving or selling. They can, however, illegally be evaded through fraud. This is why property taxes are more effective for cities: hard to avoid, hard to evade, and evasion can be punished with fines or jail.