Yesterday 10th October 2009 is an historic day for Ireland and even the World. On that day, the Coalition Government of the Fianna Fail and Green Party announced a revised Programme for Government that said.
“Starting with the necessary valuation and registration process, we will move to introduce a Site Valuation Tax for non-agricultural land. This system will provide a fair and stable basis for offsetting stamp duty on residential property:” (page 4)
This is good news and let us just enjoy the prospect for a while;- time enough for the caveats. Let us congratulate all Smart Network partners, especially the Urban Forum and especially economist Dr Constantin Gurdgiev whose two research papers (Macroeconomic Case for a Land Value Tax Reform in Ireland) and ( Land Value Taxation and other Measures for raising Public Investment Revenue: A Comparative Study.) provided the data and analysis that proved persuasive.
A third research paper is planned that will sketch out the scope of a practical LVT scheme for Ireland. This will include land/site value tax levels, allowances, phasing and transitional arrangements and crucially for government, the level of taxes that might be raised.
