No it’s not. Property tax is just that, a tax on the property. It doesn’t take into account whether you have a mortgage on said property. You are going to be taxed the same if you have 5% equity or 50% equity. You are much wealthier with 50% equity than with 5% equity considering the same home.
Archy, I understand the difference.
It’s quite possible the Constitution is/will stop it. I believe there might be lawsuits on whether the Federal Government can tax wealth and not just income. If so we will find out in the future. If there are not lawsuits going on now, there will be if tax policy gets changed to reflect a tax on wealth or unrealized gains.
I think they are virtually identical. You’ve mentioned houses and autos but what about personal property tax, like my business has to pay every year. It is a tax based on the value of owned assets. Aren’t owned assets pretty much the same as wealth?
I don’t own a business like you do so allow me to ask a few questions:
I guess it depends on how you categorize wealth. I would say wealth is assets minus liabilities. Whereas personal property tax is worse because it doesn’t allow for money that is owed on the assets. I’d say taxing someone’s net worth (wealth) is no less fair than taxing someone’s assets.
There is really only 1 way to categorize wealth. The value of what you have minus the liability of what you owe. That’s your wealth. Back to your original statement…owned assets being pretty much the same as wealth in. It’s Just the amount of the owned asset that you don’t owe any money on is wealth. Not necessarily always the entirety of the asset.
Voters are usually the ones who vote in property tax/levy increases vs the federal government representatives voting in tax increases or a wealth tax. But definitely property taxes can have adverse events for the property holder when they get to high.
