Property Tax Base Research Articles

Removing development incentives in risky areas promotes climate adaptation

As natural disasters grow in frequency and intensity with climate change, limiting the populations and properties in harm’s way will be key to adaptation. This study evaluates one approach to discouraging development in risky areas—eliminating public incentives for development, such as infrastructure investments, disaster assistance and federal flood insurance. Using machine learning and matching techniques, we examine the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a set of lands where these federal incentives have been removed. We find that the policy leads to lower development densities inside designated areas, increases development in neighbouring areas, reduces flood damages and alters local demographics. Our results suggest that the CBRS generates substantial savings for the federal government by reducing flood claims in the National Flood Insurance Program, while increasing the property tax base in coastal counties.

Проблемні аспекти та вдосконалення майнового оподаткування в Україні

The aim of the article is to study the problematic aspects of property tax administration and identify approaches to its improvement. It is found that property tax revenues in Ukraine are at a low level relative to GDP, their share in GDP does not exceed 1%, while the level of this ratio in the EU Member States is on average 2.2%. During the period under analysis, there is a tendency to a slow reduction in the share in GDP of both local taxes and fees, as well as property tax, which makes local budgets dependent on transfers from the State budget and the shares of national taxes and fees assigned to them. There is a steady tendency to reduce the share of property tax in the tax revenues of local budgets of Ukraine in recent years, which is associated with the full-scale war in Ukraine and the tax benefits for the payment of property taxes adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It is determined that the largest share in the structure of property taxes falls on land payments, while the share of transport tax is very low due to the limited list of objects that are liable to taxation. The main problems of property tax regulation in Ukraine have been allocated as follows: insufficient level of effectiveness in the administration of real estate tax, imperfect process of determining the property tax base, unreasoned establishment of property tax benefits, centralized administration of property taxes. Different approaches to tax administration and foreign experience on this issue are analyzed. The expediency of transferring the powers to administer property taxes to local self-government bodies in order to strengthen the financial capacity of communities and reduce public expenditures is substantiated. It is defined that local self-government bodies represent the most interested subject in the formation of a self-sufficient system of local finances, and tax service bodies have insufficient resources and have low motivation to administer property taxes. The problems for local authorities in case of obtaining powers to administer property tax are outlined. A new model of property tax administration has been proposed, in which local self-government bodies exercise the entire set of powers to administer property taxes. Directions for improving the property tax administration system in Ukraine are also proposed.

The real estate tax impact on economic growth

Defining of the tax impact on economic growth is of particular importance in the face of exacerbation of socio-economic, technological, environmental and other problems. Property taxes, as ones that have less distorting impact on taxpayers’ economic behavior, compared to the greater part of the rest of the known taxes, are attracting more and more attention of many researchers and are considered from the standpoint of a potential fiscal policy instrument in ensuring positive dynamics of economic development. The purpose of the article is to summarize modern approaches and research results on the impact of the real estate tax on economic growth in order to identify opportunities for implementation of this tax instruments to stimulate economic development. It has been established that foreign researchers are studying the impact of taxes on real estate from the standpoint of distorting the distribution of resources in the economy, changing the decisions of economic agents on investment issues, growth rates of the housing stock, leveling income inequality, increasing the stability of tax systems to external shocks, etc. It was revealed that most authors consider the real estate tax as one of the most non-distorting, which, with a properly designed taxation mechanism, has practically no negative impact on economic activity, and therefore little hinders economic growth, helping to reduce income inequality, increase employment and income, efficient use of land. As a local tax, it is most often seen in terms of financing local budgets and is a useful tool for raising revenues and managing public finances, since raising effective rates and broadening the property tax base can offset cuts in other taxes that are more distortive of economic behavior. In Ukraine, the attention of the authors is focused on increasing the role of property taxes in providing income to local jurisdictions and strengthening their financial stability. There is a significant lack of national researches on the impact of real estate tax on economic growth in Ukraine. Further research on the functioning of the real estate tax in the new conditions of changing paradigms of economic development and international relations, and on the impact of the real estate tax on economic growth in Ukraine could reveal new aspects of its use in the national tax system.

Should Market Value Be Retained as the Only Tax Base for Municipal Property Rates in South Africa?

In terms of the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004 (MPRA), metropolitan and local municipalities in South Africa may levy property rates on property. The MPRA provides for only one tax base, namely "market value". Given the paucity of skills and capacity to prepare credible valuation rolls and given the costs of doing so, especially B3 and B4 local municipalities situated in rural areas are struggling to comply with the valuation-related provisions of the MPRA. A brief review of property tax base options utilised globally indicates that some countries allow for different tax bases (or even different taxes) on the basis of the location and/or use of property and some jurisdictions apply simplified methodologies (such as value banding, points-based assessment or even self-assessment) to assess properties for property tax purposes. In the light of there being viable alternatives to market value and of the challenges faced by many rural local municipalities, the South African government should revisit the policy decision to have only market value as the tax base across vastly different types of municipalities.

An Impact Analysis of California’s State-County Assessors’ Partnership Agreement Program

California’s State-County Assessors’ Partnership Agreement Program (SCAPAP) provided select counties with a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the state for assessment administration over a three-year period from fiscal year 2015 through 2017. One of the policy goals for the grant was to finance administrative activities that would lead to an increase in the property tax base, thereby increasing property tax revenue. This study evaluates how well the grant accomplished this goal. Using the synthetic control method on data from 2007 through 2018, I find little evidence SCAPAP funds increased participating counties’ property tax base. Since the purpose of the program is based on sound economic theory, I caution interpreting this conclusion as a reason to discontinue policy experimentation.

Financing Local Government and Development in Canada in the Aftermath of a Global Pandemic: Continuity and Change

In the post-pandemic environment, local governments must confront a challenging fiscal environment. Drawing on insights provided over the years by Richard Bird, the author re-examines certain pervasive themes found in discussions and analysis of municipal finance, such as the merits of benefits-based taxation at the local level, the hierarchical constraints on municipal fiscal decision making, and the reality of a perpetual fiscal crisis at the local level. The underlying issue of having to finance a broad set of expenditures on public services from a narrow revenue base has resulted in intergovernmental tensions and continuing debate over the capacity of the property tax base to meet the demands placed on it. Financing local government can be described in terms of borrowing, spending, and taxing. Each of these areas of municipal fiscal decision making was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Borrowing rules remained hierarchically constrained, pressure to increase expenditures grew, and tax and fee-based revenues were adversely affected. Further, it seems likely that the municipal fiscal base will be narrowed given the controversy around development charges. The author uses data from Ontario to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on municipal fiscal health. In addition, the paper includes the Richard Bird Urban Fiscal Health Dashboard to illustrate aspects of the long-run fiscal health of Ontario's local governments. Throughout the paper, the author raises questions that merit further research informed by the perspective that Richard Bird brought to our understanding of the mechanics and implications of local fiscal decision making.

Sustainable Financing for Urban Karnataka: Viable Options

The objectives of the current paper are to suggest measures to improve the taxation and tax collection mechanisms in selected cities of Karnataka. We review and reform (where necessary) bases of assessments of revenue streams and suggest enhancement of revenue sources by suitable mechanisms that can be implemented in all the selected cities. Finally, we estimate revenue capacities of the cities and recommend expansion capabilities. The methodology of the study involved visits to each of the selected 12 cities, examination of their audited financial statements, analysis of their major revenue sources and estimation of revenue capacities for each of the cities. We recommended measures to fix relevant policies to improve the system of tax collection and revenue generation mechanisms. Summarizing our findings, increasing revenue compliance from non-paying and unassessed properties and taxation of government properties of a commercial nature, increases the property tax base for all cities across the board. The next step is to increase values of properties, in accordance with market values in an economic sense, in a gradual manner. Water connections must be metered, given that water is a scarce resource, we find its revenue potential to be nearly the same as that from property tax.

Teaching the History and Organization of Libraries: The Coronavirus Pandemic as an Opportunity to Study Public Library Reopenings

Teaching the History and Organization of Libraries: The Coronavirus Pandemic as an Opportunity to Study Public Library Reopenings

Sports facilities and the local property tax base in recovery

AbstractThis study considers if major league sports facilities help the property tax base in their vicinity recover from recession. The Great Recession is treated as an exogenous shock to the property tax base, and proximity to three facilities in Los Angeles County, California is used to predict the speed at which nearby properties’ taxable assessed value recovers. California is a useful context because state law provides a consistent and uncontroversial way to measure property tax base recovery. Using parcel‐level data from 2006 through 2019 for properties within 3 miles of the Staples Center, Dodger Stadium, and Dignity Health Sports Park, only proximity to Dodger Stadium impacts recovery speed. The results indicate that an average property a mile closer to the stadium recovers in 87% of the time an otherwise similar property a mile further away does, a finding that is robust to placebo. The study’s implications are discussed.

Local tax management in Spain: A study of the conditional efficiency of provincial tax agencies

This paper reports an efficiency analysis of local tax management by provincial tax agencies in Spain based on supramunicipal delegation. To conduct this study, we used the robust order-m conditional model that directly accounts for some socioeconomic environmental variables to estimate the efficiency scores. This is a key issue, as tax agencies do not have control over the context in which they operate, and this may have a severe impact on their performance. Our results suggest that several of the provincial contextual variables accounted for (the net property tax base, population density and inhabitants of the municipalities that have delegated management to the provincial tier of government) have a negative impact on efficiency, especially at higher variable value levels. Considering that the provincial tier of government can opt to set up specific self-governing agencies to perform these tasks, we also applied metafrontier analysis to assess their share in inefficiency. We concluded that the establishment of such self-governing agencies does not lead to higher efficiency levels.

The revenue and base effects of local tax hikes: evidence from a quasi-experiment

Due to a reform of the local equalization scheme in 2003, a set of municipalities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) increased their local property and business tax rates by one to two percentage points, while the remaining municipalities kept their rates constant. I use this variation across municipalities and over time to study the revenue and base effects of local property and business tax hikes in a generalized difference-in-differences design. The results suggest that the property tax hikes had even in the long-run a revenue elasticity of unity. Accordingly, I find no adverse effects on property tax bases. For the business tax, I find no significant effects on revenues and bases. Furthermore, there are also no effects on broader economic outcomes such as local employment, firms’ wage bill, and property prices. Overall, increasing local tax rates by one to two percentage points does not seem to affect the local economy adversely.

The effect of local taxes on firm performance: Evidence from geo‐referenced data

AbstractThis paper investigates the effect of local property tax for businesses on firm performance by using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. To identify this effect, we implement a pairwise spatial‐differenced estimator and exploit the exogenous variation in local property tax rates caused by the political alignment of local and central governments. We find that business property taxation has a sizeable negative impact on equipment, the more volatile part of tangible assets, employment, and value‐added. We interpret these results as evidence of a distortionary mechanism. When heavy equipment are included in the business property tax base, as was the case in Italy during our estimation period, business property taxation depresses investment and induces firms to also reduce output and downsize.

The Fiscal Effects of Tax Increment Financing on Rural School Districts: The Case of Iowa

Tax increment financing (TIF)—an economic (re)development tool originally designed for urban cities—has been available to rural communities for decades. This is the first study to focus solely on TIF in rural school districts, to examine TIF effects on school districts’ property tax base and rates, and to conduct event-study estimations of TIF effects. The study finds that TIF has mostly positive effects on rural school districts’ property tax base and mixed effects on property tax rates, and that TIF-induced increases in tax base come primarily from residential property and slightly from commercial property. The study’s findings assert the importance of returned excess increment if rural school districts in Iowa and many other states are to benefit from TIF.

Spatial structure and development of settlements in the Saint Petersburg agglomeration

This article explores the spatial structure and development of settlements comprising the Saint Petersburg agglomeration. Previous studies and database sources, which were never used before (the Federal Tax Service [FTS] database and SPARK-Interfax), are analysed to reveal factors in the economic development of metropolitan areas as well as to understand how settlements develop in Russia’s second-largest city agglomeration. The borders and composition of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration are brought up to date. Examining the population size of the settlements helps locate the ‘growth belt’ of the agglomeration. Lists of major enterprises of the city and the region make it possible to identify patterns in the economic development of the study area. The SPARK-Interfax database aids in clarifying relationships between spatial elements of the agglomeration (its core and satellites) in the distribution of revenues of economic agents. Data on the location of the largest retail stores — shopping malls and hypermarkets — are used to identify the main centres of commerce in the Saint Petersburg agglomeration. A map chart has been drawn using 2GIS and Yandex Maps geoinformation services. An important step in agglomeration analysis is the identification of residential development hotspots. FTS data on property tax base are the main source of relevant information. FTS reports contain data on the number of residential buildings and units covered by the database. Further, FTS statistics is employed to trace income and job distribution across the study area. The current functions of settlement in the Saint Petersburg agglomeration have been determined. According to the findings, the spatial structure of the agglomeration has three groups of ‘backbone centres’. The agglomeration includes a core, a population growth area (‘growth belt’), commuting sources and recipients, and ‘backbone centres’.

The Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on Economic Growth in Central and Eastern Europe

In this research, we evaluated the impact of fiscal decentralization on GDP per capita growth. Using the unbalanced panel data, the authors assessed the interconnections between fiscal decentralization – considering its expenditure and revenue aspects as well as tax autonomy – and economic growth for Central and Eastern European countries from 1995 to 2018. In the examined states, the expenditure decentralization exceeded the revenue one. We found out that revenue decentralization and tax autonomy adversely affected economic growth. But expenditure decentralization associated with a positive GDP growth rate. In this paper, we also explored the peculiarities of fiscal decentralization reform. Structural transformations radically reduced the size of the public sector in Central and Eastern Europe, which had a positive effect on the economy. The vital components of local budgets tax revenues are personal income tax and the property taxes. The most effective mechanism for the property tax base’s determination arises from the value of the real estate or land.
 Keywords: fiscal policy, fiscal decentralization, tax autonomy, property taxes, economic growth

The Effects of Property Tax Abatements on School District Property Tax Bases and Rates

The authors analyze the effects of property tax abatement on the property tax base and rates of school districts within a municipality offering the abatement using data from Franklin County, Ohio, one of the most populous counties in the United States. An increase in a school district’s Community Reinvestment Area abatement intensity correlates with (a) a decrease in the mill rate for real property, (b) a decrease in effective residential and nonresidential property tax rates, and (c) an increase in total market value of property. While these effects are small, they indicate that a municipality’s decision to abate has generated enough growth in property values, either through improvements to physical property or positive capitalization for existing property values, to offset the negative effects of an abatement. The reason for this may be that the restrictions and oversight used in this abatement program are greater than in most other places.

An evaluation of property tax base in Nairobi city

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the property tax base under the local government property taxation in Nairobi City and its implication on revenue adequacy of the city. Nairobi has grown both in population and in physical extent resulting to increased demand for urban services. The city faces challenges of adequate infrastructure service provision against increasing demand. Property taxation if fully exploited can be a major source of city government revenue, which has been dwindling.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review of property tax bases in the world and examination of best practices was done to highlight the inadequacies of property tax base administration in Nairobi. Primary data were gathered through interviews of officers in Nairobi City involved in the land rating process. Secondary data were obtained through documentary search and field survey of the study area.FindingsThe study established that Nairobi relies on a dual system of taxation, namely, site value rating and area rating. Tax is on vacant land only and excludes improvements. There are many legal exemptions and administrative exclusions from the tax base. The property tax registers do not include all the taxable properties and there is no regular updating of the tax registers. Nairobi relies on an outdated valuation roll whose values have no relation to the current market values.Research limitations/implicationsThese factors have resulted to a narrow tax base, which affects the revenue potential of the city and its ability to adequately provide infrastructure services.Originality/valueThis is an original research, which relied mainly on primary data. To establish the property tax bases and the exempt properties in Nairobi, the researchers interviewed the officers at the Nairobi city land valuation and property management directorate using structured questionnaires. To address the third objective on whether the property tax base is complete and all-inclusive, the research relied on primary data. The research population was residential properties in Buruburu, Kilimani and Riruta areas of Nairobi city. The sample data on property details were collected from the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning (MLPP). The researchers then examined the records at the Nairobi City to evaluate whether the properties, which are registered at the MLPP, are charged land rates at the city level and at what amounts. This included properties under site value rating and area rating.

Local taxation and tax base mobility: Evidence from France

This paper investigates the impact of tax base mobility on local taxation. First, we develop a theoretical model in order to examine the connection between local business property taxation and tax base mobility within a metropolitan area. We find that, in the presence of a budget compensation, decreasing capital intensity in business property tax base, composed of capital and land, increases the business property tax rates and decreases the tax rates on residents. We test this result using a French reform which changed the composition of the main local business tax base in 2010. Difference-in-difference estimations show that in 2010, the reduction in tax base mobility indeed resulted in a 14% rise in business property tax rates and a reduction in housing tax rates of 1.3%, compared to pre-reform average levels.

Fiscal severity and the choice of budget gap closing strategies

The great recession of 2008 forced US local governments to pursue a series of measures to maintain a balanced budget. The authors investigated local governments’ response to the great recession with a focus on Florida, where a crash in the housing market led to a severe erosion of the property tax base. Following the classic cutback management theory, the authors examine how the severity of fiscal stress affected the choice of budget-balancing strategies by Florida’s local governments. The severity of fiscal stress was found to affect not only the number of budget gap closing strategies but also the pattern of adoption of these strategies consistent with the administrative response model.

A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence of the Impact of Surface Water Quality on Property Values

The desirability of living on or close to water is reflected in sometimes substantial property price premiums. Water quality has an important influence on property prices, since it impacts a water body’s appearance, capacity to support wildlife, and recreational potential. As water quality continues to be altered by human use and activity, and in light of new threats posed by projected climate and associated environmental change, understanding the impact of changing quality on property prices, and the associated property tax base, is paramount. This paper reviews the body of evidence on this topic to date. Of the 43 distinct studies represented in the 48 publications reviewed, the expected, statistically significant relationship between water quality and property price was demonstrated in at least one of the models developed in all but two studies. As a whole, they provide convincing evidence that clean water has a positive effect on property values.