Institute of public finance
Public Sector Economics conference
Call for papers
LOGIN / REGISTER
CELEBRATING Celebrating 50
Public Sector Economics
CURRENT ISSUE
PAST ISSUES
ABOUT PSE
FOR AUTHORS
ETHICAL GUIDELINES
CONTACT
Print page
Search box

6717
Views



697
Downloads

Immovable property: where, why and how should it be taxed? A review of the literature and its implementation in Europe



Doris Prammer*
Article   |   Year:  2020   |   Pages:  483 - 504   |   Volume:  44   |   Issue:  4
Received:  January 13, 2020   |   Accepted:  September 7, 2020   |   Published online:  December 1, 2020
Download citation        https://doi.org/10.3326/pse.44.4.3       


  1. Albouy, D. and Findeisen, S., 2016. Should We Be Taxed Out of Our Homes? The Optimal Taxation of Housing Consumption. Proceedings. Annual Conference on Taxation and Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the National Tax Association, 109, pp. 1-24.

  2. Albouy, D. and Hanson, A., 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, 28(1), pp. 63-96 [CrossRef]

  3. Almy, R., 2013. Property tax regimes in Europe. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT.

  4. Andrews, D., Sánchez, A. C. and Johansson, Å., 2011. Housing markets and structural policies in OECD countries. OECD Working Paper, No. 836 [CrossRef]

  5. Arnold, J., 2008. Do tax structures affect aggregate economic growth? Empirical evidence from a panel of OECD countries. OECD Working Paper, No. 643 [CrossRef]

  6. Banzhaf, S. and Lavery, N., 2010. Can the Land Tax Help Curb Urban Sprawl? Evidence from Growth Patterns in Pennsylvania. Journal of Urban Economics, 67(2), pp. 169–179 [CrossRef]<

  7. Berger, D., Turner, N. and Zwick, E., 2017. Stimulating housing markets. NBER Working Paper, No. 22903.

  8. Berkovec, J. and Fullerton, D., 1992. A general equilibrium model of housing, taxes and portfolio choice. Journal of Political Economy, 100, pp. 390–429 [CrossRef]>

  9. Best, M. C. and Kleven, H. J., 2018. Housing Market Responses to Transaction Taxes: Evidence from Notches and Stimulus in the U.K. The Review of Economic Studies, 85(1), pp. 157–193 [CrossRef]

  10. Bird, R. M., 2011. Subnational Taxation in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature. Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy, 2(1), pp. 139–161 [CrossRef]

  11. Bird, R. M., Slack, N. E. and Tassonyi, A., 2012. A Tale of Two Taxes: Property Tax Reform in Ontario. Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

  12. Blöchliger, H., 2015. Reforming the Tax on Immovable Property. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1205 [CrossRef]

  13. Bourassa, S. C. and Grigsby, W. G., 2000. Income tax concessions for owner‐occupied housing. Housing Policy Debate, 11(3) [CrossRef]

  14. Brueckner, J. K. and Kim, H., 2003. Urban Sprawl and the Property Tax. International Tax and Public Finance, 10, pp. 5–23.

  15. Brzeski, J., Románová, A. and Franzsen, R., 2019. The evolution of property taxes in post-Socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. ATI Working Paper, WP/19/01.

  16. Buettner, T., 2017. Welfare Cost of the Real Estate Transfer Tax. CESifo Working Paper Series, No. 6321.

  17. Catte, P. [et al.], 2004. Housing Markets, Wealth and the Business Cycle. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 394 [CrossRef]

  18. Chambers, M., Garriga, C. and Schlagenhauf, D. E., 2009. Housing policy and the progressivity of income taxation. Journal of Monetary Economics, 56(8), pp. 1116–1134 [CrossRef]

  19. Cournède, B., Goujard, A. and Pina, Á., 2013. How to achieve growth-and equity-friendly fiscal consolidation? A proposed methodology for instrument choice with an illustrative application to OECD countries. OECD Journal: Economic Studies, 13(1) [CrossRef]

  20. Davidoff, I. and Leigh, A., 2013. How do stamp duties affect the housing market? Economic record, 89(286), pp. 396–410 [CrossRef]

  21. De Graaff, T. and van Leuvensteijn, M., 2013. A European Cross-Country Comparison of the Impact of Homeownership and Transaction Costs on Job Tenure. Regional Studies, 47(9), pp. 1443–1461 [CrossRef]

  22. Eerola, E. [et al.], 2019. Effects of housing transfer taxes on household mobility. CESifo Working Paper, No. 7750.

  23. Englund, P., 2003. Taxing residential housing capital. Urban Studies, 40(5-6), pp. 937–952 [CrossRef]

  24. ESRB, 2015. Report on Residential Real Estate and Financial Stability in the EU.  Frankfurt am Main: European Systemic Risk Board.


  26. Fatica, S. and Prammer, D., 2018. Housing and the tax system: how large are the distortions in the euro area? Fiscal Studies, 39(2), pp. 299–342 [CrossRef]

  27. Fatica, S., 2015. Housing taxation: from micro design to macro impact. Quarterly Report on the Euro Area, 14(1), pp. 27–33.

  28. Figari, F. [et al.], 2017. Removing homeownership bias in taxation: The distributional effects of including net imputed rent in taxable income. Fiscal Studies, 38(4), pp. 525–557 [CrossRef]

  29. Frick, J. R. [et al.], 2010. Distributional effects of imputed rents in five European countries. Journal of Housing Economics, 19, pp. 167–179 [CrossRef]

  30. Frick, J. R. and Grabka, M. M., 2003. Imputed rent and income inequality: a decomposition analysis for the UK, West Germany and the USA. Review of Income and Wealth, 49(4), pp. 513–537 [CrossRef]

  31. Frick, J. R., Goebel, J. and Grabka, M. M., 2007. Assessing the distributional impact of “imputed rent” and “non-cash employee income” in micro data: case study based on EU-SILC (2004) and SOEP (2002). SOEP Paper 2 [CrossRef]

  32. Frithsche, C. and Vandrei, L., 2016. The German Real Estate Transfer Tax: Evidence for Single-Family Home Transactions. ifo Working Paper, No. 232 [CrossRef]

  33. Fullerton, D. and Metcalf, G. E., 2002. Tax incidence. Handbook of public economics, 4, pp. 1787–1872 [CrossRef]

  34. Gayer, C. and Mourre, G., 2012. Property taxation and enhanced tax administration in challenging times. Economic Papers, No. 463.

  35. Gervais, M., 2002. Housing taxation and capital accumulation. Journal of Monetary Economics, 49, pp. 1461–1489 [CrossRef]

  36. Glaeser, E. L., 2011. Rethinking the Federal Bias Toward Homeownership. Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 13(2), pp. 5–37.

  37. Hanson, A., 2012. Size of Home, Home Ownership, and the Mortgage Interest Deduction. Journal of Housing Economics, 21(3), pp. 195–210 [CrossRef]

  38. HFCN, 2016. The Household Finance and Consumption Survey: results from the second wave. ECB Statistics Paper, No. 18.

  39. Hilber, C. A. L. and Lyytikäinen, T., 2017. Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market? Journal of Urban Economics, 101, pp. 57–73 [CrossRef]

  40. Hua, C. and Craig, R. S., 2011. Determinants of Property Prices in Hong Kong SAR: Implications for Policy. IMF Working Paper, No. 277 [CrossRef]

  41. Johannesson-Linden, A. and Gayer, C., 2012. Possible reforms of real estate taxation: Criteria for successful policies. European Economy, Occasional Papers, No. 119.

  42. Koetter, M., Marek, P. and Mavropoulos, A., 2019. Housing Demand and Credit Supply: Evidence from the German Real Estate Transaction Tax. Mimeo.

  43. Kuttner, K. N. and Shim, I., 2013. Can non-interest rate policies stabilize housing markets? Evidence from a panel of 57 economies. Bank for International Settlements Working Paper, No. 433 [CrossRef]

  44. Lenoel, C., Matsu, J. and Naisbitt, B., 2018. International evidence review on housing taxation. CaCHE Working Paper, No. R2018_02_03.

  45. Martin, H. and Hanson, A., 2016. Metropolitan area home prices and the mortgage interest deduction: estimates and simulations from policy change. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 59, pp. 12– 23 [CrossRef]

  46. Matsaganis, M. and Flevotomou, M., 2007. The impact of mortgage interest tax relief in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Greece. EUROMOD Working Paper Series, No. EM2/07.

  47. Mirrlees, J. [et al.], 2011. Tax by Design: the Mirrlees Review. Oxford: Oxford University Press [CrossRef]

  48. Norregaard, M. J., 2013. Taxing immovable property revenue potential and implementation challenges. IMF Working Paper, No. 129 [CrossRef]

  49. Oates, W. E. and Fischel, W. A., 2016. Are local property taxes regressive, progressive, or what?. National Tax Journal, 69(2), pp. 415-434 [CrossRef]

  50. Oates, W. E. and Schwab, R. M., 2004. What should local governments tax: income or property? City taxes, city spending, pp. 7–29 [CrossRef]

  51. Oliviero, T. [et al.], 2019. House prices and immovable property tax: Evidence from OECD countries. Metroeconomica, 70(4), pp. 776–792 [CrossRef]

  52. Poterba, J. M. and Sinai, T. M., 2008. Tax expenditures for owner‐occupied housing: deductions for property taxes and mortgage interest and the exclusion of imputed rental income. American Economic Review, 98(2), pp. 84–89 [CrossRef]

  53. Poterba, J. M. and Sinai, T. M., 2011. Revenue costs and incentive effects of mortgage interest deduction for owner‐occupied housing. National Tax Journal, 64, pp. 531–564 [CrossRef]

  54. Poterba, J. M., 1984.  Tax subsidies to owner‐occupied housing: an asset‐market approach. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 99, pp. 729–752 [CrossRef]

  55. Poterba, J. M.,1992. Taxation and housing: old questions, new answers. American Economic Review, 82(2), pp. 237–242 [CrossRef]

  56. Rosen, H. S. 1979. Housing Decisions and the US Income Tax: An Econometric Analysis. Journal of Public Economics, 11(1), pp. 1–23.

  57. Rosen, H. S. and Rosen, K. T., 1980. Federal Taxes and Homeownership: Evidence from Time Series. Journal of Political Economy, 88(1), pp. 59–75 [CrossRef]

  58. Rosen, H. S., 1985. Housing subsidies: effects on housing decisions, efficiency, and equity. In: M. Feldstein and A. Auerbach (eds). Handbook of Public Economics, vol. 1. Amsterdam: North‐Holland [CrossRef]

  59. Saarimaa, T., 2011. Imputed rental income, taxation and income distribution in Finland. Urban Studies, 48(8), pp. 1695–1714 [CrossRef]

  60. Slack, E. and Bird, R. M., 2014. The political economy of property tax reform. OECD Working Papers on Fiscal Federalism, No. 18 [CrossRef]

  61. Slack, E. and Bird, R. M., 2015. How to reform the property tax: lessons from around the world. IMFG Papers on Municipal Finance and Governance, No. 21.

  62. Smart, M. 2013. The Reform of Business Property Tax in Ontario: An Evaluation. IMFG Papers 10. University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance.

  63. Song, Y. and Zenou, Y., 2006. Property Tax and Urban Sprawl: Theory and Implications for US Cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 60(3), pp. 519–534 [CrossRef]


  65. Van Ommeren, J. and Leuvensteijn, M. V., 2005. New evidence of the effect of transaction costs on residential mobility. Journal of regional science, 45(4), pp. 681–702 [CrossRef]

  66. Voith, R., 1999. Does the U.S. Tax Treatment of Housing Create an Incentive for Exclusionary Zoning and Increased Decentralization? Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Working Paper, No. 99–22 [CrossRef]

  67. Wassmer, R. W., Fisher, R. C. and Kuloszewski, Z., 2019. Perspectives of the Property Tax Forty Years after Proposition 13 [CrossRef]

  68. Xhignesse, G. and Verbist, G., 2019. An assessment of the spatial efficiency of tax benefits for home mortgages in Belgium. Housing Studies, pp. 1–27 [CrossRef]

   December, 2020
IV/2020
In order to give you a better user experience, cookies have been stored on your computer.
Accept cookie     More information