100% in support of this. There are a lot of coastal, rural towns in my state that saw tons of rich people buy up homes during covid. The issue is they contribute very little tax to the local economy since they are vacation homes. Meanwhile, housing in most of those towns is more expensive than what people can afford and the availability is small.
For example, there is a town of 2k people who has an average home value now of over $400k despite the average HH income being around $80k. Meanwhile, 90 minutes away, a geographically and demographically similar town’s average home price is around $175k with an almost identical HH income.
The TLDR is people buying vacation homes are crushing small towns and should absolutely have to pay more taxes IMO.
VeryStab1eGenius on
It shouldn’t be very controversial to more heavily tax any second home that isn’t your primary residence. I know this will most impact boomers because it’s not at all uncommon for them to have two homes.
Visual-Cut-3194 on
Until states like Florida start actually enforcing their homestead laws there will be no meaningful change for the level of tax avoidance going on.
I know people with houses in Florida who have their mail and prescription drugs shipped to Hawaii where they actually live so they can create a paper trail for homesteading in FL and get no state income tax.
SuperNewk on
I am all for this. Increase taxes on seconds homes over ‘X’ amount and decrease taxes on bitcoin. One is digital, who cares if we speculate in the digital world.
fancygeomancy on
Love how mainstream media focuses on Swift and not the other multi billionaires infiltrating government policy.
Love how mainstream media focuses on Swift and not the other multi billionaires infiltrating government policy.
Azrial4real on
Simple let’s take the homes back from corporation’s also the more homes you own the higher taxes keep doubling the taxes until it’s not worth it for these companies to own them any more
SvenTropics on
100% behind this. 11% of the homes in the USA are unoccupied right now. Think about that for a second. More than one out of every 10 homes has nobody sleeping in it. This number was around 6.5% in 1980. Boomers have been gobbling up homes just to leave them empty as a way to store wealth, vacation, etc… Flippers have been buying houses and leaving them empty waiting for appreciation. Some get vacation rented, but mostly they just sit empty. Lights off. A perfectly good home empty when we have a shortage of housing.
To put this in perspective. If we gave every single homeless person one of these unoccupied houses, we wouldn’t even fill 10% of them. And that’s one house per person. Nobody is being asked to double up.
It would be like if people were stockpiling meat when other people couldn’t buy any because there wasn’t any left… Oh wait, that happened during the pandemic. I’m all for people being able to buy whatever they want, but we need a system in place that penalizes them for doing so.
The solution is a simple one. Reform property tax. Second homes and investment properties pay 4% of the appraised value every year. Every adult over 18 gets to select one home that they are named on the deed on and exempt that home. If you rent it full time and declare the rental income, it gets reduced to 2%. Exempted homes pay 1%. All proceeds go to the state you reside in. Total tax revenue should be about what it is today.
And no religious exemptions. Too many people claiming their home is a “church” to get out of it. However churches will be encouraged to have an apartment inside that the head pastor lives at allowing for the exemption of the whole building. (exemption still being 1%)
freedraw on
Wouldn’t it make more sense to name this after a billionaire people don’t like though? Like maybe the “Bezos tax” or the “Walton family tax” or something? Idk. It’s good policy for any state dealing with a housing crisis. People predicted millionaires would leave Massachusetts when they passed their “millionaires tax” but it didn’t happen. The wealthy want to own homes where stuff happens. I just wish these blue coastal states would couple policies like this with legislation to actually get a lot more homes built.
Intelligent-Rest-231 on
Love this. But I won’t hold my breath. I don’t know about Taylor Swift, but many rich people would spend a 100 years of taxes to fund a campaign to crush this proposal out of pure spite. I’m sure every slick prick ad man campaign huckster is heading to Rhode Island to get in on the smear campaign gold rush.
Super_Mario_Luigi on
I’ll take it, but I’d much rather disincentivize property for investments and to turn off the government money printer.
Taxes for punishment to the rich is actually an embarrassing solution to any real problem.
phoenix823 on
Homes are for living in, not for investment. Whatever the taxes is currently on a second property, triple it. And 10x it for a third property.
puppypupperoon on
the proposed tax is literally pennies for those people. it wont discourage anyone from owning 10 homes and it wont collect enough to fix the housing problem.
Cornswoleo on
This is good, but the only reason it’s pertaining to TSwift is because her distain for the trump administration. Why not the bezos tax or the musk tax
13 Comments
100% in support of this. There are a lot of coastal, rural towns in my state that saw tons of rich people buy up homes during covid. The issue is they contribute very little tax to the local economy since they are vacation homes. Meanwhile, housing in most of those towns is more expensive than what people can afford and the availability is small.
For example, there is a town of 2k people who has an average home value now of over $400k despite the average HH income being around $80k. Meanwhile, 90 minutes away, a geographically and demographically similar town’s average home price is around $175k with an almost identical HH income.
The TLDR is people buying vacation homes are crushing small towns and should absolutely have to pay more taxes IMO.
It shouldn’t be very controversial to more heavily tax any second home that isn’t your primary residence. I know this will most impact boomers because it’s not at all uncommon for them to have two homes.
Until states like Florida start actually enforcing their homestead laws there will be no meaningful change for the level of tax avoidance going on.
I know people with houses in Florida who have their mail and prescription drugs shipped to Hawaii where they actually live so they can create a paper trail for homesteading in FL and get no state income tax.
I am all for this. Increase taxes on seconds homes over ‘X’ amount and decrease taxes on bitcoin. One is digital, who cares if we speculate in the digital world.
Love how mainstream media focuses on Swift and not the other multi billionaires infiltrating government policy.
Love how mainstream media focuses on Swift and not the other multi billionaires infiltrating government policy.
Simple let’s take the homes back from corporation’s also the more homes you own the higher taxes keep doubling the taxes until it’s not worth it for these companies to own them any more
100% behind this. 11% of the homes in the USA are unoccupied right now. Think about that for a second. More than one out of every 10 homes has nobody sleeping in it. This number was around 6.5% in 1980. Boomers have been gobbling up homes just to leave them empty as a way to store wealth, vacation, etc… Flippers have been buying houses and leaving them empty waiting for appreciation. Some get vacation rented, but mostly they just sit empty. Lights off. A perfectly good home empty when we have a shortage of housing.
To put this in perspective. If we gave every single homeless person one of these unoccupied houses, we wouldn’t even fill 10% of them. And that’s one house per person. Nobody is being asked to double up.
It would be like if people were stockpiling meat when other people couldn’t buy any because there wasn’t any left… Oh wait, that happened during the pandemic. I’m all for people being able to buy whatever they want, but we need a system in place that penalizes them for doing so.
The solution is a simple one. Reform property tax. Second homes and investment properties pay 4% of the appraised value every year. Every adult over 18 gets to select one home that they are named on the deed on and exempt that home. If you rent it full time and declare the rental income, it gets reduced to 2%. Exempted homes pay 1%. All proceeds go to the state you reside in. Total tax revenue should be about what it is today.
And no religious exemptions. Too many people claiming their home is a “church” to get out of it. However churches will be encouraged to have an apartment inside that the head pastor lives at allowing for the exemption of the whole building. (exemption still being 1%)
Wouldn’t it make more sense to name this after a billionaire people don’t like though? Like maybe the “Bezos tax” or the “Walton family tax” or something? Idk. It’s good policy for any state dealing with a housing crisis. People predicted millionaires would leave Massachusetts when they passed their “millionaires tax” but it didn’t happen. The wealthy want to own homes where stuff happens. I just wish these blue coastal states would couple policies like this with legislation to actually get a lot more homes built.
Love this. But I won’t hold my breath. I don’t know about Taylor Swift, but many rich people would spend a 100 years of taxes to fund a campaign to crush this proposal out of pure spite. I’m sure every slick prick ad man campaign huckster is heading to Rhode Island to get in on the smear campaign gold rush.
I’ll take it, but I’d much rather disincentivize property for investments and to turn off the government money printer.
Taxes for punishment to the rich is actually an embarrassing solution to any real problem.
Homes are for living in, not for investment. Whatever the taxes is currently on a second property, triple it. And 10x it for a third property.
the proposed tax is literally pennies for those people. it wont discourage anyone from owning 10 homes and it wont collect enough to fix the housing problem.
This is good, but the only reason it’s pertaining to TSwift is because her distain for the trump administration. Why not the bezos tax or the musk tax