In an attempt to deal with an affordable housing crisis, the Dutch housing minister recently proposed a law that would have allowed municipalities to force some property owners to sell their homes only to low and middle-income earners. The problem the policy is trying to fix is one that’s particularly acute in Canada.
The solution is a wealth tax. It worked for the first 10,000 years of human civilization, after the 100 year failed experiment of income/sales tax it’s time to go back.
No it didn’t. For those 10k years, most people lived under the iron fist of a monarch who owned everything and everyone.
Yep, tax capital, not labor. It seems so obvious.
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. --Abraham Lincoln
- Scale property tax for number of properties owned. Double it per property owned.
i.e. own 2 homes, property tax for ALL homes owned doubles. Own 3 homes, pay 4x property tax. etc. Homes should not be hoarded. And corporations are definitely not exempt, except perhaps before first sale (i.e. they constructed the property) or demolition sale (buying multiple properties for demolition to be able to construct denser units)
- Add or expand speculation tax (like the empty homes tax): it should be decently large, like at least 10% of the property’s assessed value per year. However, it can be negated based on income tax paid by someone who lives at that location (as reported on their tax filing). There may need to be some additional reductions for retirees/seniors too.
Either way somebody’s gotta live and work there to avoid the tax. No “students” owning multi-million dollar mansions.
And then use the tax income to fund construction of government housing, to rent out at cost
Why not ban anything past a primary home? It’s like at a wedding where everyone gets to eat first before going for seconds.
I guess it’s a political non-starter given the number of people who own more than one home…
I think taxing investments would be simpler and make more sense. This is briefly mentioned at the end of the article.
Add a yearly tax that is tied to (federal reserve interest * house value) for anything other than primary residence and since people are corporations they would also be affected.
Here’s an easier solution: make real estate a poor investment by raising property taxes. It either works (great) or it doesn’t (also great, because now the government has more money and more resources to build out infrastructure and housing).
That would put a lot of pressure on those who are struggling.
Taxes should be income based.
The city already has programs in place to reduce and write off property tax bills from people who are struggling.
Income is a poor measure of wealth.
Taxes should be income based.
I think taxes should be mostly wealth based, not income based.
You want to know why?
Because it’s easy for some rich bastard to report zero income while having billions in assets.
Someone who already can’t make end’s meet would feel the sting of any amount of taxation in day-to-day life compared to a billionaire.
Wealth hoarding should be severely taxed. You want more land than humanly acceptable? Six houses at 10,000sq+ each? 15 cars? A tennis court and equestrian ranch for friends and family? Fine, get ready to pay a lot for it on an ongoing basis.
I’m in the lowest tax bracket. I only made about $34k last year. The amount of income tax I paid was equivalent to about 25% of my total wealth.
Calculate 25% of your total wealth. How would it feel to pay that much in taxes? Because that’s how much I paid.
Fuck income tax.
What province do you live in?
How much is 25% of your total wealth?
I want to know which province you live in to know what the tax brackets are.
I want to know what 25% of your total wealth is so you can be confronted with number and forced to think about what it would be like to pay as much tax as I do.
My friend, I’m not against you. I don’t know why you’re acting like this.
It’s at the point where it’s clear no single measure will solve this issue. What is absolutely infuriating is that NOTHING is being done. Actually scratch that, they are actively making things worse with crap like the “First Home Savings Account”.
Just start saving when you are born and if you save enough you might be able to put a down payment on a house when you are 40 and qualify for a 90year mortgage.
An interesting idea but I feel like there are too many loopholes. What about people who incorporate holding companies for their rentals? What about people who earn their income in their corporations, and can control if they are “low income” in the year they purchase a house? If there’s a lower earning spouse, can they be the ones to list it at whatever price? Canadian cities vary greatly with their real estate markets - will the cutoff price be decided in each city? Will the cutoff only be adjusted for inflation, or will it be adjusted based on market rates?
If there is tax planning to be had, the rich will find it!
We need to take a multi-tool approach to this crisis. This is a great idea, as well as increasing the supply of homes and removing impediments and red tape when it comes to housing construction, as well as public housing.
