Last week I offered a solution to the blight caused by vacant or disused sites in central Melbourne. Everyone is diminished by landowners leaving valuable land unused while they agitate for rezoning profits. The Age’s Bruce Guthrie hopped into the discussion...
BLOG: land tax
If you run a business on rented premises and aren’t a full-on Georgist, you need your head read!
“When you've paid your rent, you've paid your tax.” “So what's a Georgist?” you ask. A Georgist (or at least a “full-on” Georgist) is someone who says there should be no taxes except those on land values, payable by the owners — and is keen to explain that “land”...
Directly or indirectly, we all pay income tax
The mascot of the anti-land-tax campaign is the “poor widow” — you know, the one who will allegedly be forced out of her home because she doesn't have the cash flow to pay the tax on the astronomical value of the land under her house, and who...
Australian Cities Severely Unaffordable
The latest annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey ranks all Australian capitals as Severely Unaffordable. They’re right and the statistics back them. Housing has two elements, the building and the land. What fluctuates is the land price;...
Want a new GST? Sink the old one!
Changing the GST was always intended to be hard and is getting harder by the week. Under the so-called intergovernmental agreement on implementation of the GST, any change in the rate or the base required the unanimous approval of the Federal, State and Territory...
Steer Around the GFC
15 November 2012 The mining investment boom that carried Australia though the Global Financial Crisis is declining rapidly and new engines of growth are urgently needed to steer around the ‘Controlled Depression’ that is driving the world into a spiral of misery -...
Land Tax Stability
The education of the public via mainstream media continues to grow with Jessica Irvine writing in the Herald Sun today: "State governments do apply some land taxes, particularly on investment properties. But a major recommendation of the Henry review was for a broader...
Baillieu’s new Building Tax and Land Subsidy
“This reform means Victorians have a new building tax while the value of our fire service boosts the price of land.”
Making a Fortune Without Lifting a Finger
Our colleagues in the UK are making good headway into the political process. Here in Australia, despite leading research on the topic, politicians shake in their boots when they consider the property lobby.
Big Holes or Money Pits?
Major transport projects costing billions are being proposed for Sydney and Melbourne to shrink these sprawling cities. NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s plans to ‘fix’ Parramatta Road by ripping it up and installing the M3 in a cut-and-cover tunnel. The poor state of...