Fiscal, distributional and efficiency impacts of land and property taxes

Abstract

Land taxes are known to be amongst the most efficient forms of taxation, as land is an immobile factor; property (capital value) taxes are less efficient owing to the tax on improvements. However there is little international (or New Zealand) evidence regarding the distributional impacts of land and property taxes. Nor is there much New Zealand evidence on their potential fiscal implications or about the taxes' impacts on asset values and debt positions. Using both partial and general equilibrium models, we explore impacts that may arise from the imposition of land and property taxes in New Zealand.