The Property Tax as a Tax on Value: Deadweight Loss

Consider an atomistic developer who decides when and at what density to develop his land, under a property tax system characterized by three time-invariant tax rates: the tax rate on pre-development land value, the tax rate on post-development residual site value, and the tax rate on structure. This paper investigates the relative efficiency of four idealized, non-neutral property value tax systems (Canadian property tax system, simple property tax system, residual site value tax system, and differentiated property tax system) under the assumption of a constant rental growth rate.