Скачать или смотреть Immoral Property Taxes Infringe on Personal Liberty

Taxing individual rights; taxing non-existent wealth; taxing the same asset over and over again - is neither justifiable nor moral!

The most basic principles of taxation:
1. Do not double tax the same asset;
2. Do not tax non-existent wealth (paper money);
3. Do not tax private rights.
Property tax violates all of these principles and is neither justified nor ethical!

A Brief History of Tax Evolution

I don't want to discuss complicated economic theories. I just want to briefly review the evolution of state taxation. The survival of any government depends primarily on taxation. But everything has a cost, and the collection of taxes is no exception. In ancient times, the simplest and least costly tax was the poll tax. Economic historians have not even been able to identify the first countries to impose a poll tax. All we know is that the most typical ones, ancient Rome and ancient China, were dominated by the poll tax.
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Our Lives Are Rented

Taxation is essentially the taking of a portion of the proceeds from an individual's income and giving it to the government. The basis of taxation is therefore earnings. Whether the tax is levied from the producer or the consumer, it is essentially a tax on the earnings portion. Private property that is not put into reproduction, that is not invested, or that is invested without a gain, cannot be taxed again.

A Liberty Tax

Private property rights are the cornerstone of liberty, and liberty is rights. Ludwig von Mises (Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises, September 29, 1881 - October 10, 1973) even equates liberty with private property rights. For a more detailed discussion, see: "Liberty is Not 'Negative', Only 'Exist' and 'None'". Whether it is real estate, private cash, jewelry, or other private property. They are all property rights of the individual, and at the same time are part of the individual's right to liberty. Individuals already pay income tax when they work for income. When purchasing personal consumer goods and then paying transaction tax again on the post-taxed income, this is a second tax on the same asset. As long as these property rights purchased by the individual are not put back into production, or sold, there is no gain, and therefore no justifiable legitimacy for the Government to tax individual rights.
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Taxing Non-existent Wealth

Property taxes also increase based on the growth of the price of the property on the market, which is a tax on paper wealth, an unrealized gain on the individual. And that unrealized gain may never be realized. Let's say you buy a property for $1 million. As the market price gradually grows to $2 million, the government will increase the tax base to tax the number on paper. But when an individual is in dire need of money and sells the property, the market may plummet to $500k. Will the government refund this extra tax collected by relying on paper wealth?

Taxing individual rights; taxing non-existent Wealth; taxing the same asset over and over again - the property tax has become the contemporary "poll tax"! If such unreasonable and immoral taxation is legal, is the law not "protecting immoral behavior?" Is it not a violation of human rights in the name of law?

When Life Needs to Pay Rent

Henry of Bracton (c. 1210 - c. 1268), also known as Henry de Bracton, Henricus Brendeton, Henry Bratton, and Henry Breton, was an English clergyman and jurist. He is best known for his legal work "De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliæ" (On the Laws and Customs of England). It was he who came up with, and was repeatedly quoted by, later thinkers and legal scholars:

That the wind and the rain may enter, but the King cannot enter

Property taxes, on the other hand, make an individual's privately owned home a tenancy for life. If the individual does not buy a license from the "king" every year, the individual has no right to live there. It's not just "the wind and the rain may enter, and the King's tax official enter." It's also "pay your taxes or you're out of a house." - This is not the liberty to own property, this has become the freedom to work for the "king" from life to death and to rent a piece of real estate out of one's pocket to protect oneself from the wind and the rain, to be a nominal free man, but in essence, a slave who needs to earn his own living.

Arno Will, July 11, 2025

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