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Explain Like I am a child ... taxes. I get you pay taxes on goods you buy everyday. And you get said goods by paying a one time fee. But how come on a home after being paid off I still pay taxes...... (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago* by to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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I mean I paid for it like I would anything else I wanted. They charge a tax at checkout. So if I buy a house and pay the whole thing off, why do I still have to pay taxes on said house when I paid the whole agreed on price in full? It would be like me buying a six pack of beer I pay for it and tax at checkout. But then timely I have to keep paying taxes on the beer even though paid in full?

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[–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)

Without property taxes, land hoarding would be even worse. That six pack of beer is something they can just manufacture more of, you aren't displacing other people who would otherwise get to drink beer by holding on to it, nor do they need beer to live, so it is not a problem if you put it in a corner in your basement and forget about it. With real estate, the supply is limited, and people can't do without a place to live, so it's better off being something that will be financially corrosive to hold on to (IMO making property taxes conditionally much higher would be a good solution to the housing crisis). Plus it's easier to keep track of in order to impose ongoing tax compared to consumer goods, being a geographical feature that isn't going anywhere.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    I feel like you shouldn't have more than 1, maybe 2 properties you don't live in that are tax free and no corporations should ever own property; they should only be allowed to rent unless the business owner owns the property. So if you're super wealthy you can have like one maybe two and or one each vacation house / business location. And if you are renting out your second / third property, you have a LOT of competition just by design. Anything more than that should be legal, but get taxed at an exponential scale. Honestly if we left all assets where they are and just portioned all business assets to their owners then taxed like that they'd have to sell to not be taxed to death and it would all equalize pretty quickly. What counts as "one property" should be in terms of population over acreage in suburban and rural areas, and population over square footage in urban areas. HOAs should only exist as shared governance of buildings that are physically attached to each other.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Corporations only allowed to rent AND rent being taxed reasonably AND rent being legally bound to be proportional to value would solve some problems 🤔 Not sure how many new problems this would create, especially in transition periods and with foreign countries not all doing the same.

    Counting properties is difficult for bigger lots though. Is that a big shed or an extra house at the other end of your farm? Or maybe that doesn't really matter unless you rent it out.

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