Land and Property Tax: a Policy Guide is a companion for government officials and land and property professionals seeking to understand how to establish a viable and vibrant land-based taxation system. Using various examples, alternatives and illustrations around the World, the Guide provides a compelling case for generating local revenue through land and its improvements.
In the Guide, you will find answers to questions such as why land and property taxes are often an important source of local revenue, what the options are for designing and sustaining a land-based tax system, and what needs to be considered in their implementation. The Guide presents a step-by-step approach to implementing a range of land and property taxation policies, strategies, tools and instruments.
It provides various taxation alternatives that can be adapted to local contexts and local and central authorities' capacities. The Guide will be a valuable resource for local, sub-national and national government officials, community leaders, researchers, urban planners, international and national urban consultants working on land and property taxation, urban land market, urban economies, and land-based finance mainly in developing countries and emerging economies.
The report covers three basic issues: property tax legislation and practice, the significance and magnitude of property tax revenue, and the prospects of property taxation in the three East African countries - Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Following a widely used structure for describing property tax systems, this report provides a survey of European property tax regimes. Distinguishing the various other categories of taxes on property, it focuses on recurrent taxes on immovable property. It analyzes differences in the utilization of property taxes across the countries in Europe.
It discusses fiscal arrangements, including the power to tax property, revenue assignments, and how tax rates are determined. It describes such design features as who is responsible for paying recurrent taxes on immovable property, which categories of property are taxable, and the basis for the tax. Strategies for providing tax relief are discussed. It discusses administrative arrangements generally and provides comparative detail on cadastral and valuation systems.