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Home-owner Residential Property Taxes and their Burden on Net Personal Wealth: An Empirical Study for Australia

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  • Gavin A. Wood

    (Department of Economics, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, wood@central.murdoch.edu.au)

Abstract

Domestic residential property taxes can be viewed as a substitute for a tax on personal wealth. This paper measures the formal distributional characteristics of residential property taxes in Australia with respect to the net wealth of home-owners, and the net wealth of all households in the personal sector. Net wealth is estimated by a combination of investment income and survey methods. The study emphasises three major findings. First, on controlling for stage in the life-cycle, the formal incidence of residential property taxes on home-owners' net wealth is clearly regressive with respect to the income of home-owners. Secondly, residential property taxes are a relatively high burden on young home-owner households' net personal wealth. Finally, though tenants are not liable for residential property taxes in Australia and the choice of owner-occupation is income-elastic, the residential property tax burden on personal-sector wealth is not distributed progressively.

Suggested Citation

  • Gavin A. Wood, 1999. "Home-owner Residential Property Taxes and their Burden on Net Personal Wealth: An Empirical Study for Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(2), pages 239-254, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:36:y:1999:i:2:p:239-254
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098993583
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Productivity Commission, 2008. "Assessing Local Government Revenue Raising Capacity," Research Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 26.
    2. Wadud, I.K.M. Mokhtarul & Bashar, Omar H.M.N. & Ahmed, Huson Joher Ali, 2012. "Monetary policy and the housing market in Australia," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 849-863.

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