[dragonwriter]

Sentimental value is value and is factored in when declaring value; you are taxing the value to the owner.

> I think instead of "anyone", it should be just the govt. If your appraisal seems too low, then the gov't reserves the right to purchase the asset instead of charging you the owed tax.

For intellectual property (only), I've suggested in the past a version of this where anyone can buy it at the declared value, but it can only be bought into the public domain, which is sort of a hybrid of the anybody can buy and only the government can buy ideas.

In the more general case, an alternative is “anyone can offer to buy with a bid at or above the declared value, but unless it is the government exercising eminent domain you can refuse by increasing the declared value above the bid, posting back taxes as if the declared value for the current tax year were the new value, and for prior years as if the value had increased on some legally defined schedule over a set window of years (say, 5) or since you acquired the item, whichever is shorter, including a time-based penalty for all the ubderpayments.”