> Somehow the idea of perpetually paying property taxes and land value taxes doesn't sound appealing to me, especially since businesses already pay taxes.
And it doesn't sound appealing to me, as an individual. I don't want to feel like a peasant constantly paying a tax to the monarch/state: so at very least the first property an individual owns should be tax free (not annual land value tax / property tax). I happen to live in a country where that's the case (but it's not the reason I moved there): no yearly property tax.
The days of merely protecting one's property are long over. At least in the US real estate taxes pay for many services unrelated to safety of the property. For example, closing a real estate tax funded senior center is unlikely to result in an increase in crime. Maybe the seniors themselves would be more vulnerable without a senior center, but I fail to see a general crime spree resulting. If anything the seniors would be watching other people's property and call the cops at any sign of potentially suspicious activity.
I live in a US state where I do pay property taxes but there is no income tax. Those property taxes and the overall sales tax are the main sources of revenue for the state.
I don't expect to live in an area without paying something to maintain it.
And it doesn't sound appealing to me, as an individual. I don't want to feel like a peasant constantly paying a tax to the monarch/state: so at very least the first property an individual owns should be tax free (not annual land value tax / property tax). I happen to live in a country where that's the case (but it's not the reason I moved there): no yearly property tax.