Editing Land value tax (section)

==Ethics==
{{See also|Georgism}}

Land acquires a [[scarcity]] value owing to the competing needs for space. The value of land generally owes nothing to the landowner and everything to the surroundings.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Study in Land Value Taxation|url=https://seek.estate/articles/study-land-value-taxation/|work=[[Seek Estate]]|access-date=6 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140602195043/https://seek.estate/articles/study-land-value-taxation/|archive-date=2 June 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Everybody works but the vacant lot (cropped).jpg|thumb|Everybody works but the vacant lot – [[Henry George]]]]
LVT considers the effect on land value of location, and of improvements made to neighbouring land, such as proximity to roads and public works. LVT is the purest implementation of the public finance principle known as [[value capture]].{{sfn|Coughlan |1999| p=263}}

A [[public works]] project can increase land values and thus increase LVT revenues. Arguably, public improvements should be paid for by the landowners who benefit from them.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rybeck | first1 = Rick | year = 2004 | title = Using Value Capture to Finance Infrastructure and Encourage Compact Development | journal = Public Works Management & Policy | volume = 8 | issue = 4| pages = 249–260 | doi = 10.1177/1087724X03262828 | s2cid = 154860270 }}</ref> Thus, LVT captures the land value of socially created wealth, allowing a reduction in tax on privately created (non-land) wealth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://earthsharing.ca/page/poverty|title=Poverty|work=earthsharing.ca}}</ref>

LVT generally is a progressive tax, with those of greater means paying more,<ref name="World Bank" /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Plummer|first1=Elizabeth|title=Evidence on the Distributional Effects of a Land Value Tax on Residential Households|journal=National Tax Journal|volume=63|pages=63–92|date=March 2010|url=http://www.ntanet.org/NTJ/63/1/ntj-v63n01p63-92-evidence-distributional-effects-land.pdf|access-date=7 January 2015|doi=10.17310/ntj.2010.1.03|s2cid=53585974|archive-date=10 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110102445/http://www.ntanet.org/NTJ/63/1/ntj-v63n01p63-92-evidence-distributional-effects-land.pdf}}</ref> in that land ownership correlates to income<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Aaron|first1=Henry|title=A New View of Property Tax Incidence|journal=The American Economic Review|date=May 1974|volume=64|issue=2|url=https://econpapers.repec.org/article/aeaaecrev/v_3a64_3ay_3a1974_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a212-21.htm|access-date=7 January 2015}}</ref> and landlords cannot shift the [[tax burden]] onto tenants.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=McCluskey|first1=William J.|title=Land Value Taxation: an Applied Analysis.|date=2005|others=Riël C. D. Franzsen|isbn=978-1-351-92356-9|location=Florence|oclc=975222670|last2=Franzsen|first2=Riël C.D.|publisher=[[Routledge]]|pages=4–5}}</ref> LVT generally reduces [[economic inequality]], removes incentives to misuse real estate, and reduces the vulnerability of economies to property booms and crashes.<ref name="McCluskey and Franzsen">{{cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=jkogP2U4k0AC|page=73}}|page=73|title=Land Value Taxation}}</ref>