IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ays/ispwps/paper0820.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Taxing Property Transactions versus Taxing Property Ownership

Author

Listed:
  • Terri A. Sexton

Abstract

Few studies have examined the use and effects of real property transfer taxes, especially in the U.S. This paper examines the variety of transfer tax programs currently in use in the U.S. and compares them to property taxes in terms of equity, efficiency, and revenue potential and stability. The next section examines the widespread use of property transfer taxes in the U.S. and other countries and compares them in terms of tax rates, tax base, tax authority, and use of revenues. In Section 3 we discuss the distributional impact of property transfer taxes including who ultimately bears the burden of the tax and whether the tax is regressive or progressive with respect to income. Section 4 looks at the efficiency effects of transfer taxes including the excess burden of the tax and its effect on household mobility. Section 5 examines the revenue potential of transfer taxes and their volatility, and Section 6 summarizes and concludes.

Suggested Citation

  • Terri A. Sexton, 2008. "Taxing Property Transactions versus Taxing Property Ownership," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0820, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0820
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp0820.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Sullivan Arthur & Sexton Terri A. & Sheffrin Steven M., 1995. "Property Taxes, Mobility, and Home Ownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 107-129, January.
    2. O'Sullivan,Arthur & Sexton,Terri A. & Sheffrin,Steven M., 2007. "Property Taxes and Tax Revolts," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521035996, September.
    3. Benjamin, John D & Coulson, N Edward & Yang, Shiawee X, 1993. "Real Estate Transfer Taxes and Property Values: The Philadelphia Story," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 151-157, September.
    4. Ferreira, Fernando, 2010. "You can take it with you: Proposition 13 tax benefits, residential mobility, and willingness to pay for housing amenities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 661-673, October.
    5. Ana M. Aizcorbe & Arthur B. Kennickell & Kevin B. Moore, 2003. "Recent changes in U.S. family finances: evidence from the 1998 and 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 89(Jan), pages 1-32, January.
    6. Roy Bahl, 2004. "Property Transfer Tax and Stamp Duty," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0427, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bradley, Sebastien, 2018. "Assessment limits and timing of real estate transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 360-372.
    2. Nada Wasi & Michelle J. White, 2005. "Property Tax Limitations and Mobility: The Lock-in Effect of California's Proposition 13," NBER Working Papers 11108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ayşe İmrohoroğlu & Kyle Matoba & Şelale Tüzel, 2018. "Proposition 13: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 24-51, April.
    4. Liu, Shimeng & Yang, Xi, 2020. "Property tax limits and female labor supply: Evidence from the housing boom and bust," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    5. Anderson, Nathan B., 2012. "Market value assessment and idiosyncratic tax-price risk: Understanding the consequences of alternative definitions of the property tax base," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 545-560.
    6. Cunningham, Chris & Reed, Robert R., 2013. "Negative equity and wages," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 841-849.
    7. Benjamin Dachis & Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2008. "Sand in the Gears: Evaluating the Effects of Toronto's Land Transfer Tax," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 277, December.
    8. Chris Cunningham & Robert R. Reed, 2012. "Housing wealth and wage bargaining," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2012-20, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    9. Collin D. Hodges & Heather M. Stephens, 2022. "Does municipal incorporation always increase property values?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 200-220, March.
    10. Cheung, Ron & Cunningham, Chris, 2011. "Who supports portable assessment caps: The role of lock-in, mobility and tax share," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 173-186, May.
    11. Bunting, David, 2009. "The saving decline: Macro-facts, micro-behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 282-295, May.
    12. Katchova, Ani L., 2005. "A Comparison of Farm and Nonfarm Households," 2005 Agricultural and Rural Finance Markets in Transition, October 3-4, 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota 132757, Regional Research Committee NC-1014: Agricultural and Rural Finance Markets in Transition.
    13. Matteo Iacoviello, 2008. "Household Debt and Income Inequality, 1963–2003," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(5), pages 929-965, August.
    14. Douglas C. Bice & William H. Hoyt, 1997. "The Impact of Mandates and Tax Limits on Voluntary Contributions to Local Public Services: An Application to Fire Protection Services," Public Economics 9704002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Guillaume Bérard & Alain Trannoy, 2017. "The Impact of a Rise in the Real Estate Transfer Taxes on the French Housing Market," Working Papers halshs-01582528, HAL.
    16. Raj Chetty, 2004. "Consumption Commitments, Unemployment Durations, and Local Risk Aversion," NBER Working Papers 10211, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Lei Ding & Jackelyn Hwang, 2020. "Effects of Gentrification on Homeowners: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 20-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    18. Patrick Bayer & Robert McMillan & Kim Rueben, 2004. "An Equilibrium Model of Sorting in an Urban Housing Market," NBER Working Papers 10865, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. David Albouy & Andrew Hanson, 2014. "Are Houses Too Big or In the Wrong Place? Tax Benefits to Housing and Inefficiencies in Location and Consumption," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 63-96.
    20. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0820. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paul Benson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ispgsus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.