On Mar 13, 11:12*pm, Tony Bryer wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:44:16 -0700 (PDT) Jgharston wrote :

How would Land Valuation Taxation clear up dilapidated buildings?

Because it acts as a holding cost. I remember stories about redundant
factories being bought and demolished or have their roofs removed so as
not to pay rates. In some cases this hastens the inevitable; in other
cases potentially reusable buildings are destroyed.

Here in Australia we have land tax - all properties are revalued every
couple of years and your rate notice shows the land value and rateable
value. In Victoria if you own land other than your own home whose total
value is greater than $250K (£165K) you pay land tax on a sliding scale
of 0.25%-2.25%. If you incur this tax on land that is not income
producing you cannot treat it as a taxable expense: it increases the
cost base of the land for Capital Gains purposes. So if you own ten BTL
houses all rented out, your land tax is set against the rents for tax
purposes. If you buy a piece of land and are just sitting on it, you
pay land tax, no tax relief (until you sell), an encouragement to bring
it back into beneficial use.

The one quirk is that it is a State Tax so BTL owners with lots of
properties can mitigate its effect by buying in more than one state.

--
Tony Bryer, *Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia * * *www.greentram.com

Here in Malvern (UK) some local land lord has demolished an empty
"Industrial Unit" to avoid paying local council tax.
He had the rubble piled up and put a notice on top to that effect.
Was in the local papers.