openpolitics/manifesto — pull request #250 by digitalWestie (2014-12-08 20:57:29+00:00)
Title: Adopt land value taxation

Relevant sources and benefits of LVT:

- LVT Campaign: http://www.landvaluetax.org/
- Land reform resesarch blog from Andy Wigthman: http://www.andywightman.com/?s=Land+Value+Tax
- A Land Value Tax for England - http://www.andywightman.com/docs/LVT_england_final.pdf
- Info poster on LVT in Northern Ireland: http://www.nicva.org/sites/default/files/d7content/attachments-articles/land_value_tax.pdf

"LVT is designed to encourage efficient and sustainable usage of land. Owners of derelict and neglected properties pay no less tax
than those who manage their properties better, thus providing an incentive to look after and use land well. Supermarkets and developers would be deterred from “land-banking”, a speculative practice which regularly leaves brownfield land unused and unproductive." - http://www.andywightman.com/docs/LVTREPORT.pdf

"It recognises that the value of land is often not intrinsic, i.e. it is determined by wider factors than the land itself, and therefore the wider community should benefit from increases in land value too. [..] Land Value Tax is very hard to avoid. As long as there is a fully-functioning land information system of ownership, occupation, land use and land values the state can easily tax land owners." - http://www.allofusfirst.org/the-key-ideas/land-for-people/

"Marginal areas revitalised - Economic actitivities are handicapped by distance from the major centres of population. Conventional taxes such as VAT and those on transport fuels cause particular damage to the remoter areas of the country. Land Value Tax, by definition, bears lightly or not at all where land has little or no value, thereby stimulating economic activity away from the centre - it creates what are in effect tax havens exactly where they are most needed." - http://www.landvaluetax.org/what-is-lvt/

It's simple, progressive, and well tested.