The Vermont Land Gains Tax Experience With It Provides a Useful Lesson in the Design of Modern Land Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID2775962
AuthorsThomas L Daniels (0000-0002-9447-5087, Iowa State University), Robert H Daniels, ROBERT DANIELS (0000-0002-5988-2920, Iowa State University), Mark B Lapping (0000-0003-4363-2174, Iowa State University)
Year1986
Volume45
Issue4
Pages441-455
Publication date1986-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1536-7150.1986.tb01943.x
OpenAlexW1973575768
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Vermont is currently the only state which employs a special capital gains tax on certain land sales. A comparison between the Vermont land gains tax and Henry George's Single Tax provides a useful lesson in the design of modern land policy. The Vermont tax is aimed at discouraging short run land speculation, while the Single Tax seeks to discourage the long term quasimonopoly of land ownership. The Single Tax would capture unearned increments to land value while the Vermont tax applies only to realized capital gains and tends to reward long term speculators. An empirical analysis of the Vermont tax reveals that tax revenues have been small, and that the tax has not prevented a rise in land values. In fact, the Vermont tax may have increased land prices by restricting available land supply. Although the Vermont tax intended to curb speculation and reduce land subdivision activity, it is not a substitute for land use planning and carefully designed growth control ordinances and regulations

Ad valorem tax · Business · Capital (architecture) · Capital gains tax · Economics · Geography · Indirect tax · Market economy · Natural resource economics · Property tax · Public economics · Speculation · Tax credit · Tax reform · Value-added tax · Finance · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth

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