Reestablishing the role of property taxation could be a research task to be considered first of all in order to build up sound local finance and perform proper taxation by local governments. Therefore, a study of property tax incidence theories could ...
Reestablishing the role of property taxation could be a research task to be considered first of all in order to build up sound local finance and perform proper taxation by local governments. Therefore, a study of property tax incidence theories could help us to have an eye to the regional economic effects of the course application of the differential rate of property tax among regions.
The aim of this paper is to give an idea to find a solution to the problems of underdeveloped areas and income redistribution in Korea where local autonomy has been expected to be practised in near future by surveying property tax incidence theories and empiricals.
The summary of this research are as follows:
Different from the ‘Old view’ that property tax is regressive, under the ‘New view’ from the point of view of particular localities, increases or decreases in property tax rates are likely to be shifted in ways which affect noncapital incomes by creating capital flows from higher taxing areas to lower taxing areas, that is, the tax will have the effect of discouraging development in areas where taxes are high, in favor of development in areas where taxes are lower. Some empirical papers provide evidence that high property taxes, ceteris paribus, are a deterrent to business locations or local property taxes matter to firms. Therefore, it seems to be desirable to introduce the system of taxing differential property rates among regions which will bring about regional development effect of underdeveloped areas in the long run. However, in case of Korea prior to this, actualization of property assessment based on market price and reform of tax rate structure which could improve vertical equity should be preceded as a condition precedent to introduce it.