In the early 1990s, tax-foreclosed homes represented a large portion of the abandoned property in many decaying neighborhoods of Atlanta. Part of the cause of this problem was a deficient non-judicial tax foreclosure system that required burdensome notice and a long redemption period. This...

Defining the functions of real property tax ("RPT"), levying RPT fairly, and legislating RPT democratically are the three core issues of the current RPT reform, which are addressed in this paper. Firstly, even when granted the capacity, RPT cannot solely fulfil the function of controlling the...

Several countries have recently abolished or significantly reduced their taxes on bequests. Bequest taxes, on the other hand, were among the first to be introduced when modern systems of taxation were developed at the end of the nineteenth century. We propose an explanation for these facts which...

This paper assesses the extent to which property taxes are capitalized into property values, exploiting the 2012 Italian tax reform. Municipal-level variation in the level of the property tax rates is instrumented using the exogenous staggered timing of local elections. We show that the...

This research explores relatively successful reforms of the local property tax system in the four largest city councils in Sierra Leone. Deriving lessons from differing outcomes across the four councils, it highlights three key messages about the determinants of successful reform. First,...

Findings by various researchers suggest that ad valorem malassessments are best understood if one realizes their political consequences for assessing officials. High assessment dispersion often results from the assessors' sensitivities to political influence. Also, political incentives may...

This article evaluates two alternative standards for resetting property assessments on title transfer in property tax systems like Oregon's and California's, which are explicitly designed to protect property owners against rapid, unanticipated increases in their tax bills: California's reset to...

Optimal government unit size is a subject of continued concern among tax economists. Aspiring for the economies of scale and cost savings, Indiana recently consolidated its township assessor functions to the county level. This paper finds that following reform the new structure resulted in...