Land Value Taxation
is the Right Property Tax

Harold Sudell

[Reprinted from the Philadelphia Inquirer 1932]

In your editorial today on "The Unjust Burden on Real Estate," you say that the tax on realty should be diminished. This is one of those dangerous half truths. There is no question that the tax on homes is too high and that the community suffers because of this. But real estate is made up of two entirely different constituents - buildings and land. The value of the buildings is individually produced; the value of the land is socially made. And the effect of taxes on these two things is diametrically opposite. High taxes on buildings work evil; they make homes scarcer, dearer and harder to get. They effectively lessen employment. But high taxes on land values, since they check land speculation, make land (for use) more abundant, cheaper and easier to get, and as land cannot be used without employing labor, they materially aid in diminishing unemployment.

Taxes on buildings are excessive - yes! Any tax levied on homes is excessive, since it is both unnecessary and unwise. But, up to the point of taking the whole of the economic rent of land by taxation, the tax on land cannot be too high - the higher the better so far as the general welfare is concerned.