Smart Taxes member Karl Deeter was in the Sunday Times with an opinion piece on Site Value Tax. He does a great job outlining the benefits of the tax as opposed to property-based taxation. Subscribe to the Sunday Times here.
If you say you want value for money in the public service, give the state a fixed budget with which to work. If you want to avoid the boom-bust cycle of property, agree to counter-cyclical policy. If you want your tax spend on infrastructure returned to you, recapture it in the areas where it is spent. If you want a tax system in which the rich cannot avoid the share of the burden, you must find a method of taxing that has no loopholes to be exploited. If you truly desire policy that is progressive and fair, and support the ideals mentioned thus far, then you inadvertently believe in a site value tax.
