Why? Because apparently they need some more incentive to keep units occupied. Also, even though a property might be vacant, there’s still imputed rental income there. Its owner is just receiving it in the form of enjoying the unit for himself instead of receiving an actual rent check from a tenant. That imputed rent ought to be taxed like any other income.

  • aelwero@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Pay income tax on income you aren’t collecting?

    I live in my house. The neighbor rents theirs. I have twice the square footage, and I maintain my house like it’s mine, whereas they maintain theirs like it’s a rental, which is to say my house is way fucking nicer… I don’t have the paper thin wall paneling with the lines millef in it to look like shiplap, and the babyshit green pile carpet out of the fucking 70’s, you know? That pileif shit rents for $1800/mo, and my mortgage is almost exactly $1k with homeowners, taxes, and warranty included. I don’t know what the fuck I could get if I rented it, but what you’re suggesting is that I should be obligated to pay income tax on what I might get??? Not the 1% property taxes, but like what? 30% or so?

    How about fuck no? Do you own a house? Do you want to own a house? What you’re suggesting could price anyone who makes less than a million dollars a year right the fuck out of the property ownership world… forever… That is a batshit crazy fucked up idea.

    • _NoName_@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It is possible to distinguish between home occupiers and renters, and were a law made like this some method of distinction would be needed.

      The entire purpose of a law like this would be to force renters to keep their lots occupied or sell them if they cannot afford to do so. Either way, you either see a drop in rent costs from a market increase, or you see a drop in real estate costs as the market increases. And either way you do not have tens of thousands of vacant homes while homelessness is on the rise.

    • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      You live in your house, it’s not a rental property. It would be very simple to have this law apply to properties 2+

    • AmosBurton_ThatGuy
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      1 year ago

      You mean to say people that are renting don’t spend their own hard earned money (a huge chunk of which goes to some greedy asshole) improving some other richer persons property? The horror! Won’t somebody think of the poor landlords? How dare they not consider the neighbors property values!

      🙄

    • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workOP
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      1 year ago

      Not sure what my personal situation has to do with it, but I am indeed a home owner. To be clear I don’t think you should have to pay property tax in addition to income tax on the imputed rent. It’s one or the other and I think income tax on imputed rent is fairer and makes more sense. In my case, if I were to pay income tax on the imputed rent of my house instead of the property tax, I would paying less than half of what I am now at current rates. I don’t think such a change would price people out of home ownership, but it might make people reconsider owning too much home.