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Endowment
Smith criticizes the archaic tax system that England still used in his era. England taxed each property at exactly the same amount from year to year, regardless of whether rents increased or improvement made the land more valuable. Moreover, it taxed houses based on the number of hearths or windows, rather than their market value. Smith argues that this system unfairly enriched landlords and city-dwellers, while depriving Britain of the revenue it needed to run its government.
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English Land Tax Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term English Land Tax appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 5, Chapter 2
...main expense—war—was cheap. But in modern European countries, land taxes cannot cover the sovereign’s expenses. Britain’s land tax applies to all land, houses, and interest earned on capital stock, but it...
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...value, or in proportion to its real value. Constant land taxes, like the one in Britain, lead to inequality because some land gets improved, and some does not. Such taxes are...
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...fixed from year to year, these taxes become no different from constant land taxes, like Britain’s.
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England applies its land rent tax to houses, too, but its valuations are very unfair. Holland taxes houses based on their...
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...have done so at very low, approximate rates—which is similar to how England has implemented its land tax .
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Book 5, Chapter 3
Britain’s tax system has four parts: “the land-tax, the stamp-duties, and the different duties of customs...
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