The Assignment of the Property Tax: Should Developing Countries Follow the Conventional Wisdom?

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez () and Mark Rider

International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU from International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to revisit the issue of the appropriate assignment of the property tax within the context of a fiscally decentralized system. We examine whether the conventional wisdom of assigning property taxes to local governments is the right one. Particularly in light of the difficulties many developing countries have with properly administering the property tax and the apparent reluctance of local authorities to utilize the revenue potential of the property tax. Because the assignment of the property tax involves a number of functions, such as defining the tax base, setting the tax rate, as well as many administrative functions, like registration, assessment, and collections, we also examine the wisdom of assigning all of these functions to local governments versus assigning some of these functions to local governments and the remaining functions to higher level governments. In the latter case, the important issue is which functions are properly assigned to local governments.

Keywords: Proporty tax; Assignment of the Property Tax; Developing Countries; tax assignment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2008-12-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0821

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