In Response to Bill Waltz and his NWI Times July 30 Chamber of Commerce contentions characterized as the TRUTH about ‘fair share’ in property taxes As propounded by Waltz: As the Legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission looks at the state’s taxes this summer, invariably there will be talk of business needing to pay its “fair share.” That’s certainly true, but what is fair? In the case of property taxes, Hoosier companies currently pay 50 percent of the state’s total property tax. But that fails to tell the full story. Property tax is supposed to be paid according to how much property you own and how much it is worth. Everyone pays a rate that is applied to their property’s assessed value. At least it starts out that way, before deductions are applied. Who gets deductions? The single biggest group, far and away, is homeowners. They definitely should get a break. How much of a break, tough, is the question. The disparity between what homeowners pay and what businesses pay is measured each year by the Lincoln Land Institute/Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence. The recent 2014 report shows the “fairness” ratio puts Indiana in the position of seventh worst in the nation... So it’s not like property taxes are the only place businesses are hit with taxes, but it’s the area that is the most egregious. The disparity is simply out of hand. ********* Attempting to state an equivalence in tax standing between homeowners and owners of business enterprises amounts to equating walnuts with oranges. A business is a commercial enterprise not a shelter, home or residence. For fair taxation purposes, the appraisal of commercial assets in the form of real and personal property, represents a formal recognition of their value consistent with how they are used in the production and/or distribution of goods and services for profit. It is utterly specious of Waltz to omit the functional basis of appraised values assigned commercial-oriented properties, let alone imply the disparate uses of property somehow support an equivalence between homeowners and business entities. Farmland aside, property value is not an abstract category, but a concretized valuation of personal or real property based on use and monetized on the basis of utility flowing from function. The entirety of Waltzs complaint about any disparity in determining the fair share owed on the true tax value of commercial properties is little more than self-serving, delusory gibberish. Fair share? Housing does not exist or function to produce goods and services for profitable placement in the stream of commerce. ---- See JULY 30 Waltz guest commentary: The truth about ‘fair share’ in property taxes Bill Waltz is vice president of taxation and public fiance for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:15:54 +0000
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