The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax

Densification and more efficient use of land are important planning challenges across Europe intended to aid the pursuit of sustainability goals. Property taxation influences land use. It can discourage or incentivize efficient land use. In the international academic debate, the land value tax is c...

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Main Author: Cornelia Roboger
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: oekom verlag GmbH 2023-12-01
Series:Raumforschung und Raumordnung
Subjects:
Online Access:https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/1721
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author Cornelia Roboger
author_facet Cornelia Roboger
author_sort Cornelia Roboger
collection DOAJ
description Densification and more efficient use of land are important planning challenges across Europe intended to aid the pursuit of sustainability goals. Property taxation influences land use. It can discourage or incentivize efficient land use. In the international academic debate, the land value tax is considered an effective land policy instrument that can promote more efficient use of land. Germany is currently transforming its property taxation system and has discussed different property tax models in the political decision-making process. This paper explores the political motivations of this reform based on a discourse analysis of plenary sessions and complementary in-depth expert interviews. On the one hand, the empirical findings highlight the experts’ positive assessment of the potential of the land value tax for efficient land use and densification. On the other hand, they also show how the potential allocative effects of the land value tax were largely overlooked during the political debates. Instead, discussion centred around distributional aspects of the property tax. It can be shown that despite the great potential for tackling urgent planning issues, policymakers are hesitant to adopt and apply instruments of land policy that intervene in existing private property rights.
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spelling doaj.art-90e75241a2cb4a93961bc2a0a35fe6a12023-12-06T11:51:25Zdeuoekom verlag GmbHRaumforschung und Raumordnung0034-01111869-41792023-12-0110.14512/rur.1721The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value taxCornelia Roboger0TU Dortmund University Densification and more efficient use of land are important planning challenges across Europe intended to aid the pursuit of sustainability goals. Property taxation influences land use. It can discourage or incentivize efficient land use. In the international academic debate, the land value tax is considered an effective land policy instrument that can promote more efficient use of land. Germany is currently transforming its property taxation system and has discussed different property tax models in the political decision-making process. This paper explores the political motivations of this reform based on a discourse analysis of plenary sessions and complementary in-depth expert interviews. On the one hand, the empirical findings highlight the experts’ positive assessment of the potential of the land value tax for efficient land use and densification. On the other hand, they also show how the potential allocative effects of the land value tax were largely overlooked during the political debates. Instead, discussion centred around distributional aspects of the property tax. It can be shown that despite the great potential for tackling urgent planning issues, policymakers are hesitant to adopt and apply instruments of land policy that intervene in existing private property rights. https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/1721Land value taxationdensification land policyGermany legislation
spellingShingle Cornelia Roboger
The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
Raumforschung und Raumordnung
Land value taxation
densification
land policy
Germany
legislation
title The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
title_full The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
title_fullStr The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
title_full_unstemmed The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
title_short The taxing implementation of densification: The missed opportunity of the German land value tax
title_sort taxing implementation of densification the missed opportunity of the german land value tax
topic Land value taxation
densification
land policy
Germany
legislation
url https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/1721
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