Land Value Tax and Land Uses

Land Value Tax and Residential Land Uses

Theory predicts low-income homes save with a land value tax. The data bears this conclusion out. As has been known for decades, the row home communities benefit greatly, along with most other land uses for residential.

Land Value Tax and Apartment/Hotel Land Uses

The more dense a rental apartment complex is, the more tax reduction is seen. Hotels, especially ones that are in keeping with traditional urban core development also benefit.

Land Value Tax and Store/Dwelling Uses Land Uses

The classic "mom and pop" buildings. The range of results is narrow, indicating that small business could benefit from this shift coupled with continued reductions in the BPT.

Land Value Tax and Commercial Land Uses

The phrase"commercial" covers everything from piers, to bodegas to suburban style strip malls on Roosevelt Boulevard. The range of savers to payers is dramatic. In general, the better the land use, and the less automobile intensive the use, the better the LVT result.

Land Value Tax and Industrial Land Uses

The industrial age is gone in Philadelphia, and the rusted towers and hulks (as well as this data) show that. This class sees a significant shift, which is expected: the land is no longer in use, and there is no reason to use it, until the economic climate changes to permit the return of some sort of industry to Philadelphia. Letting the owners just sit on the land makes little sense.

Land Value Tax and Vacant Land

Obviously, the land value tax is a shift from what people do, build and work for onto something else: land value. Even with the errors in the Philadelphia assessment system, the shift to un-built upon land is appropriate in economic theory, progressive in tax policy, and just. Land values are not created by the landowner, as a landowner. The publicly-created land value belongs in the public treasury. Although the thousands of vacant residential lots lead the way in increased tax incidence due to their sheer number, many valuable uses would, at last pay their fair share under the land value tax.