Posted on 02/22/2017 9:22:26 AM PST by Kaslin
Since the dawn of human civilization, governments have relied on property taxes to pay for public services.
In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh’s tax collectors levied taxes on individuals’ grain, oil, livestock, and land. When Alexander the Great conquered the world more than 2,300 years ago, he established administrators to assess local property taxes in the communities he ruled over, with some of the more troublesome nations paying more as a penalty for their disobedience. European monarchs would later assess their own property taxes, which, on occasion, led to full-scale wars between wealthy land-owning rivals. The British property tax system would eventually develop into something comparable to what we see in America today, and the Founding Fathers of this nation accepted the existence of property taxes as normative and necessary for the development of a proper society.
Government taxes are not inherently immoral. In fact, taxes are a necessary part of a functioning community. Without taxes, there would be no way to fund police or fire departments, the military, or necessary government agencies.
However, property taxes are fundamentally different than other forms of taxation. Use taxes, such as tolls, require only those people actually using a service to pay taxes. Income taxes and sales taxes apply levies on the transfer of wealth. Some taxes, such as Social Security taxes, are applied in exchange for a future benefit (assuming Social Security survives, of course).
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Property taxes are one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetrated on the American people.
A tax on overseas remittances, especially to Mexico and other bad actors of illegal immigration, in lieu of property taxes on American citizens.
Yeah, I could go for that
“Use” taxes are just ways for urban cities that won’t/can’t supply its own citizens with resources, safety and services ways of continuing their bloated and corrupt governments by imputing use taxes on people who work within their limits - even when they don’t live there.
It’s like county sales taxes.....for heaven’s sake don’t charge the residents and homeowners for the county services, let out of county shoppers and transients pay for it. I’ve seen this trend in SPLOST taxes and they always win because it doesn’t cost the residents and saves on their property taxes.
Road Taxes? Okay, tax by the mile if you want, but you damn well better drop that state and federal gas tax then....
The problem is that if you scrap property taxes, it has to come from somewhere else. And in a lot of ways, it becomes more visible. And people will revolt - especially renters. :)
One reason I moved to KY is that my annual property taxes on a new home, a big barn, and 32 acres with two streams is less than one month’s car payment. :)
Imagine a 30% sales tax.
Income taxes are worse. So what’s the solution? The fair(consumption) tax? Capital gains + corporate taxes are a joke.
I would too....anything that makes illegals pay through the nose.
However, in CA for instance, prop 13 is great for those who stay in their homes for long periods or purchased them before they went from 100k to 750k in just a couple of decades.
But for everyone else wanting to buy? Ferrget it. They're going to get looted and robbed, but good.
How about taking a frigging stomach stapler to government’s bloated belly at all levels? The problem isn’t ‘government doesn’t have enough money,’ the problem is that ‘government spends way too much money.’
I would like to see property taxes eliminated for your primary residence. Once someone pays for their home and is retired, they should have a secure place to live.
The problem with Prop 13, is that the State wound up taking up the slack. If anything, there should be more taxes at the local level than at State and Federal Level. More local taxes means more local control.
Property taxes are the worlds’ oldest crime. People paying it had to go into prostitution, leading to the second oldest crime.
Wow. This guy writes a whole entire article on taxation and fails to mention tariffs. Tariffs funded the Feds from 1789 to 1913. The globalist are afraid to even mention the word tariff. LOL! Idiots.
It's the only way to have a bloated bureaucracy full of political patronage folks who do nothing all day except eventually cause local governments to go bankrupt due to the fuzzy math of over promising pension benefits and not funding them.
Property taxes are an anthema to private property rights.
It is a Feudalistic Rent / Protection racket by the Government Mafioso
From my financial situation, property taxes are good because I own a far smaller house than my income would support and switching to a sales or income tax would hit me harder.
Imagine a 30% sales tax? Works for me if it would bring relief to the millions of CA homeowners. And it also work for me because I’m very frugal and don’t buy much. I’m good with it as long as the millions of tourist who come to CA daily pay the same, I have no problem with that.
It wouldn’t surprise me if property taxes could be traced through history to the ancient custom of exacting tribute from a conquered people to the sovereign. C’mon all you history majors, there’s a thesis topic on a silver platter.
The “property tax” is incremental confiscation. Every year they take about 3% of the value, so after 30 years or so they have taken the full value of the property. They disguise the actual percentage by calling it a “mill rate”, knowing that most of the public will never bother, or doesn’t have the mental capacity, to convert that to percent.
The reason is that the left hates private property, and wants it, but can’t outright take it (yet). So they take it 3% at a time, each year.
Property taxes are an incremental “taking”.
The “takings clause” of the 5th Amendment: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
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