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Neutral Property Taxation

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Author Info
Richard Arnott (Boston College)

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Abstract

A major difficulty in implementing land/site value taxation is imputing the land value of builton sites. The literature has focussed on two alternatives. The first, residual site value, measures postdevelopment site value as property value less structure value, measured as depreciated construction costs. Residual site value would be relatively easy to estimate, but residual site value taxation is distortionary, discouraging density. The second, raw site value, measures post-development site value as "what the land would be worth were there no building on the site (though in fact there is)". Raw site value taxation is neutral (does not distort the timing and density of development), but the estimation of raw site value would be complex so that assessment would likely be less fair and more arbitrary, contentious, and prone to abuse. This paper asks the question: Is it not possible to design a property tax system (taxation of predevelopment land value, post-development structure value, and post-development site value at possibly different rates) that employs the administratively simpler residual definition of post-development site value and achieves neutrality? The paper provides an affirmative answer, characterizes the tax rates that achieve neutrality, and briefly discusses issues of practical implementation.

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Paper provided by Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy in its series Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series with number 1025.

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Date of creation: 27 Jun 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cdl:bphupl:1025

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  1. Paul A. Samuelson, 1964. "Tax Deductibility of Economic Depreciation to Insure Invariant Valuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72, pages 604. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Bentick, Brian L, 1979. "The Impact of Taxation and Valuation Practices on the Timing and Efficiency of Land Use," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 859-68, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Kanemoto, Yoshitsugu, 1985. "Housing as an asset and the effects of property taxation on the residential development process," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 145-166, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Chinloy, Peter, 1979. "The estimation of net depreciation rates on housing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 432-443, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Sweeney, James L., 1974. "A commodity hierarchy model of the rental housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 288-323, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Arnott, Richard J & Lewis, Frank D, 1979. "The Transition of Land to Urban Use," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(1), pages 161-69, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Capozza, Dennis & Li, Yuming, 1994. "The Intensity and Timing of Investment: The Case of Land," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 889-904, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Alex Anas, 2003. "Taxes on Buildings and Land in a Dynamic Model of Real Estate Markets," Urban/Regional 0302004, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Richard Arnott & Petia Petrova, 2002. "The Property Tax as a Tax on Value: Deadweight Loss," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 532, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Salois, Matthew J. & Moss, Charles B., 2008. "Testing for Hyperbolic Discounting in a Panel of U.S. Agriculture," 2008 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2008, Dallas, Texas 6808, Southern Agricultural Economics Association. [Downloadable!]
  4. Jyh-Bang Jou & Tan Lee, 2008. "Neutral Property Taxation Under Uncertainty," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 211-231, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Jyh-Bang Jou & Tan Lee, 2008. "Taxation on Land Value and Development When There Are Negative Externalities from Development," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 103-120, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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