I've been a supporter of this tax since 1998. Unfortunately, people just don't get it. Opponents say it will be unfair to the poor. Truth is, poor people pay zero tax under this program because of the "prebates." http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/PrebateExplained2012.pdf There are also other legitimate concerns about the tax based upon recent studies. The fairtax.org concept has failed to gain any traction in 15 years. I doubt that it's going to get anywhere now.
Prebates is one of the parts that I don't agree with in the fairtax plan. Every person who is in the country should pay tax! Yet, I also believe the fairtax people have the proposed rate set too high. I would set it lower. This is how I compensate for the poor, yet while everybody pays!! One of the reasons the fairtax hasn't gained enough support is because Americans are too damn fat, lazy, and dumb to do anything about their government/taxes.
i was once a big proponent of the fairtax and still might be, but it has inherent problems also, and isn't anywhere near as simple and transparent as an LVT. Also the incentives are not necessarily properly aligned. But it does have some very appealing aspects. Anyway, the intent of this thread is to debate the topic presented. Your comment doesn't provide any value.
Honestly this is one of the only areas that is difficult with this tax in the modern world. Most other concerns are trivial and indicate that people don't have a true grasp of what a tax is. Anyway, the issue is that we no longer simply have material land. WE also have virtual real estate. It is my contention that every business uses either or both of those. Farmers are an extreme case of the first, whereas, financial companies are an extreme case of the second. IMO, it's not unreasonable in any argument about LVT to consider the idea of "virtual" LVT. Amazon is a special case in that it takes advantage of the virtual and physical system while using a very small physical footprint. For this reason I think that certain excise taxes bring in the benefits of the "fairtax" plan without the drawbacks, and keep the benefits of the LVT plan. So amazon would be taxed based on gas tax, some LVT, and maybe a virtual LVT. That is sort of the entire idea. The amount of land is fixed. The quantity cannot easily be manipulated (like printing money to create wage inflation). Keep in mind that the value of a piece of land is directly tied to its potential use. If there is a certain restriction on a piece of land, that land significantly drops in value, which greatly reduces the inherent tax burden. As an extreme case, any land that has no inherent value, also has no inherent tax burden. There is currently desert land in the US that sells for about $10/acre. There is no incentive for Hoovervilles because someone is liable for taxes on that property. Think about it a little more deeply.
The point of this thread is that you must argue against the LVT. Not simply declare that another tax is better or more appropriate.
I've considered that many times, but you should realize that most proponents of LVT suggest the possibility of deferring taxes for a defined period. The idea there is that taxes cannot be exempted, but for certain circumstances, like the one you proposed, there would be an allowable deferral period and repayment schedule. A similar situation would be one in which an elderly couple has no income and would be taxed out of their home. They would be allowed to defer taxes until transfer of title at which time the deferred tax would need to be repaid on an accelerated schedule.
The only fair solution is a transaction tax on all monetary exchange. Property taxes, beverage taxes, local politician slush fund taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, food taxes, sanctions are all a scam. Simplest and fairest method is to electronically collect 1% transaction tax on all monetary transactions at time of exchange with no exceptions. Eliminate currency and go all electronic with all accounts administered and managed by the US Treasury. Anyone and everyone can open a US Treasury account... Eliminate all tax filings and pass a Constitutional Amendment no other taxes are allowed to be enacted or assessed to anyone and all exchange/barter/trade of products and services are required to clear through eDollar accounts. As long as the world settles in dollars we always collect 1%. Use our military and politicians to make sure the world only trades and settles in dollars. Collecting a worldwide 1% tax will easily fund our military operations and enforce our ways.