Back to the Future: New Zealand and a (re)new(ed) national land value tax
The Tax Working Group has been commissioned to fix New Zealand's tax system, which has wilted in the face of global recession. Land Value Tax - at the national level - may be headed for a comeback in the land of Kiwis, the Great Moas and nice Sauvignon Blancs...
LVT in a Land Down Under
Commissioned by the government, the Tax Working Group is working on a government remit to fix a now-uncompetitive tax system in New Zealand. It's big jump up-on-the-table-idea? Land value tax.
New Zealand's local government has a long and mostly comfortable relationship with land value tax. UrbanTools has covered Rotorua's people and business struggles against the landowners for some time now, with people power most often preserving LVT in the hundreds of cities and towns that use it through popular vote.
The mass press still hates LVT but many are more supportive noting that taxes on incomes, sales and business must come down, especially in the face of Australian competition. The addition of the Greens to the party support list, may help the return of land value tax at the national level since its rescission in 1989.
Interest is - gratefully - high, and public discussion lively.
About 100 articles on the current debate can be found here.
