[RobGR]

But currently, most of the high intensity retail areas tax the landlords on the value of the land PLUS the value of the building ( "improvements" ). They owe this tax even if the building is empty.

How does switching to a land value tax, which only taxes them on the value of the land, help at all ?

[titanomachy]

I think it makes a lot of sense. Like if you have a $100k empty lot taxed at 1% of total value, and you build a $200k house on it, then your taxes go from $1k to $3k, which somewhat disincentivizes building. You might feel pretty comfortable sitting on the lot at $1k/year, especially if values are increasing at more than a few % per year. But if you tax only the land at 3%, then your taxes are already $3k. There’s no disincentive to build, and it’s a lot more uncomfortable to sit on that empty lot, so you develop it or sell it to someone who will.

[lotsofpulp]

In urban and suburban areas, it benefits society to have more development on a given piece of land. Taxing the land only does not mean the nominal tax liability goes down. Taxing the land only means the land owner is incentivized to do something with the land. The more productive the use, the better for their bottom line, and the better for society.

Easiest example is having an empty lot or a detached single family homes taking up 0.2 acre lots in the middle of a city that could house 10x as many people on the land. Right now, leaving it underutilized makes it a cheap savings account for the landowner. Developing it is work. So let's incentivize the development taxing the land only (can be the same or more), so that the only way it makes sense to control that land is to do something sufficiently useful with it.