Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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and lobbying on the topic of land taxes for years. He advocates that land tax
imposed at the local level should be tax deductible; so if you pay $8000 in rates this
should be deductible from your income tax liability. This would provide a critical
link between central and local governments, giving the latter more opportunities
for revenue raising, although there would be less income for central government.
Such a policy would therefore work well in conjunction with the devolution of
central government functions.
While it is now agreed by many that land value taxation should be
introduced alongside monetary reform, until recently there has been considerable
suspicion between supporters of the two reform movements, each claiming that
they have sole rights to the truth. In 2001 I emailed a British Georgist (supporter of
the theories of Henry George) on the subject, who replied:
You ask if there is anyone who thinks in terms of both Georgist and monetary reform terms?
The answer, at least here in the UK is yes, and the number is growing. I for one, an old
Liberal Party hack, now Liberal Democrat, was weaned upon the policy of SVR [site value
rental]. As I stumbled over the bones of the old Social Credit movement I realised that in
fact they were allies, though you wouldn’t have thought it from the animosity. As I see it the
Georgists argue that the increase in the value of land is brought about by the activities of
the community, and therefore rightly belong to that community, and not to the one who
claims ownership but does nothing to raise that value themselves. Money, I would argue, is
in exactly the same position. It is the actions of the community in creating wealth – goods
and services – that give value to the money created. 10
Advantages of Land Value Taxation
As discussed above, land value taxation stops speculation in land, and therefore