Another thing that might help make a Harberger tax more acceptable is to have some kind of escape clause if you come to realize you priced your property incorrectly. For example, you could legally back out of a sale if you pay, e.g., 2x the tax bill arising from the difference in your original price and the offered price.
This could give rise to a secondary industry of insurers who would protect you against having to move if you price the property at their recommended value. I’m not sure if that would be a good thing for the goals of the system, but it could at least put a price on some of the optionality that people would object to losing and take away a bit of the pressure to price your property exactly right.
Anyway, I got here via the ACX open thread and really enjoyed this piece!
Another thing that might help make a Harberger tax more acceptable is to have some kind of escape clause if you come to realize you priced your property incorrectly. For example, you could legally back out of a sale if you pay, e.g., 2x the tax bill arising from the difference in your original price and the offered price.
This could give rise to a secondary industry of insurers who would protect you against having to move if you price the property at their recommended value. I’m not sure if that would be a good thing for the goals of the system, but it could at least put a price on some of the optionality that people would object to losing and take away a bit of the pressure to price your property exactly right.
Anyway, I got here via the ACX open thread and really enjoyed this piece!