Hacker News Reader

Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

Does anywhere in the world have a marginal property tax?

LA introduced a mansion sales tax.

Anywhere else?

My main issue with a marginal property tax is that the areas with high property values already have enough taxes generally for the things property tax covers.

Not sure at least in the US how feasible it would be to have a marginal property tax and the revenue go to the state and the Fed (or even the county's general fund in most places).

My guess is there's a 0% chance the marginal property tax could go to the Fed to reduce Federal income tax, and in most states, a low chance it could even go to the state, or even in most counties that it could go to the general fund instead of mostly to the local school district and local fire department (which are usually already funded adequately).

View on HN

UK has council tax bands based loosely on property value, but it's not very regularly reassessed so it's not very progressive.

Norway has a wealth tax of up to 1.1% of wealth, with discounts based on different types of wealth and a minimum deduction of ca. $150k. Discounts are based roughly on how liquid assets are. Houses etc. are valued at 25% of market value, so let's say you have a $600k house, the taxable value is $150k, which falls entirely within the minimum deduction, so most people pay very little wealth tax.

and speeding tickets! In parts of Scandinavia, the speeding tickets fine is based on your income, not a flat fee, so if you're a bank manager you pay more for the parking ticket vs if you're a poor student. The record is €121,000 for being caught going 20 over the limit by a multimillionaire.

>My main issue with a marginal property tax is that the areas with high property values already have enough taxes generally for the things property tax covers.

The big issue in my opinion is defining property/wealth (not just land and cars, but also intellectual property, art, etc), and then the feasibility of appraising all of that, and then litigating those appraisals (for the populace as a whole).

Seems like it could get into quite a bit of the country’s resources going to refereeing the game, which at some point takes away from productivity.

We already have to appraise most of that anyhow, for capital gains tax purposes.

Though not really for the population as a whole: the majority of people don’t have all that much in the way assets. The proposals that get floated in the US don’t kick in until your wealth is in the tens of millions.

Capital gains taxes do not require any appraisal. They only apply when a gain is recognized, so is simply sale price minus purchase price times tax rate.

Capital gains taxes are income taxes. Property/wealth taxes are taxes paid based on the “market” price of an asset just for owning it (presumably society provides for its security and environment in which it became valuable and will continue to be valuable).

There's tiered levels of what's called "stamp duty" in Australia (at least some states anyway), which is a tax charged on all property purchases paid by the buyer. And some council rates (effectively a type of property tax) are differential, based on the type & value of your property.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com