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by no_wizard 666 days ago
Land Value Tax[0] is the way. It strongly incentivizes the following:

>The owner of a vacant lot in a thriving city must still pay a tax and would rationally perceive the property as a financial liability, encouraging them to put the land to use in order to cover the tax. LVT removes financial incentives to hold unused land solely for price appreciation, making more land available for productive uses. Land value tax creates an incentive to convert these sites to more intensive private uses or into public purposes.

The entire purpose of a land value tax is to encourage the productive use of land, which boils down to either building stuff on it to make it more productive or selling it to someone else so they can largely do the same.

Otherwise it is a simple tax burden to hold. While extremely wealthy individuals may choose to do this, its unlikely that businesses (like PE firms) are going to let their tax obligations stack over time and hold empty land / buildings etc. Same goes for individuals who are taxed at wildly different rates (like in California with Prop 13) simply based on time of sale

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
1 comments
enriquec 666 days ago
This has already failed. The bay area is full of empty land and buildings owned by firms and a horrific housing situation. Doesn't stop the statists from proposing yet more tax for every single problem though.
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kmeisthax 666 days ago
California doesn't count because they have a de-facto landed gentry.

In 1978 they passed a ballot initiative[0] that locks in property tax rates until a home is sold or renovated. This was further amended[1] to allow generational transfers of those rates. The end result is an extreme disincentive to sell land and a class of homeowners with favorable tax treatment who want the state to be coated in amber. Any market intervention is useless without addressing the harms caused by the current property tax regime and the people who benefit from it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13...

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no_wizard 666 days ago
California does not have a land value tax, even attempting to study the effects of a land value tax failed[0]

[0]: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1555689

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