hugh wrote:
In message , John Williamson
writes
I know a number of people who have been in the same house for over
thirty years. Are you suggesting that their property taxes should be
based on a value from the 1970s?

Why not? Their property value now is determined by what other people can
afford to pay for it, whereas they may well could not now afford to buy
it themselves.

The reality is the whole principle of a property tax is largely
"unfair". But first you must define what criteria for assessing "fairness".

One fair method would be to calulate that each person in a town
generates on average X kilos of rubbish per year, uses a certain anount
of street lighting as they move round, and so on, then charge each
person for what they use...

Oh, didn't they try that? It was called the Poll Tax, IIRC, and got
thrown out very quickly. Or you could charge a local income tax, but
that would be too complicated to work out....

Bring back the rates. At least they were based on a nominal rental value
for each property, which meant that bigger homes paid more rates on
average than small ones.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.