Madam, – There appears to be a consensus that we need to introduce new property taxes.
Taxes on property or consumption are undoubtedly preferable to taxes on income or production, particularly in the present straightened circumstances, as highlighted by both employers and the unions.
However, we need to introduce the most appropriate taxes - property tax similar to rates or the UK poll tax is not appropriate or indeed publicly acceptable.
Site value taxation, as applied in many countries, including parts of the USA, is the most balanced form of taxation and should certainly replace stamp duty and commercial rates.
It could also replace a substantial portion of income tax.
There have been many publications and reports advocating the introduction of site value taxes.
A number of submissions were made advocating site value tax to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution in their enquiry into private property and the committee’s final report recommended that such a tax was a definite option and an alternative to their main recommendation to introduce Kenny-type legislation, which is now on the current Programme for Government.
Further research on the best way to apply a site value tax in Ireland is currently being undertaken with the intention of presenting it to the Commission on Taxation.
The introduction of such a tax would go a long way towards avoiding another property bubble, and would encourage us to make the optimum use of the land zoned for development and stop the unsustainable sprawl of urban development. – Yours, etc,
JAMES PIKE,
Milltown,
Dublin 6.