Land value tax is not mentioned as an extra means of raising revenue in Claire Bisseker’s article “A Tax Net Trawling Fished-out Seas” (Features, September 5-11). All present levies on land and property, except the municipal rates, are to do with the transfer of property from one owner to another.
Land, with or without built development on it, and with or without development rights under use zoning rules, can be bought as a speculation, in anticipation of an increase in value, either through changes to zoning rules or the coming of built development nearby, especially in conjunction with improved transport infrastructure.
The way existing municipal valuations are carried out might not reflect these changes, as the bought land itself either remains undeveloped, or has no application for planning permission to build on it. Were the owners then to sell, they would doubtless reap a handsome profit, on which the various levies would be applied. But what if they just sit on the land, simply to continue increasing the eventual likely sale price?
There should be a means for the public purse to garner an element of this increase in value, and that is land value tax. It should also reduce speculation, and release land for development more timeously. Ireland, for one, has now introduced such a tax.
ADH Leishman
Cape Town
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