Why do mostly english speaking nations have property taxes and others don't?
Here in the US you buy a house and you have to pay property taxes, if not, you will lose your home putting your family out on the street. Same is the case in most other english speaking countries. Yet in other countries Once you buy a house it is yours and is passed down through the generations. Their roads still get built and emergency services still get paid, garbage gets collected, etc. And no one loses their home. Why is everyone ok, with this?
2011-04-26T12:44:04Z
They do get these services paid for usually by income taxes. Friends have commented from Switzerland, Germany, Hungary. etc. It seems that only english speaking countries have them where you can lose your home.
Bostonian In MO2011-04-26T13:09:49Z
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All 3 of those countries have property taxes. Some give them a different name but the effect is the same. In Germany a popular tax dodge is to not finish the outside of your home for 2 years after it's built, as taxes are not assessed until the earlier of the date that construction is completed or 2 years from the date that construction started.
Most property taxes in Europe are lower than in much of the US, but they make up for it in higher income taxes, much higher sales taxes (VAT averages 20%), massively higher gasoline taxes (around $6 a gallon for TAX alone). France has a wealth tax that ranges from .5% to 2% depending upon your net worth. They also have tolls on the Autoroutes that make your head spin -- try 80 Euros from the Loire Valley to Paris, about a 4 hour drive.
FWIW, England does not have property taxes in the traditional sense, and the last time that I checked, they were the 2nd largest English speaking nation in the world. They use a system of "rates" that are assessed on the occupancy of a home with a very loose association to the actual value of the home. The occupant pays the rates, so tenants pay the taxes on the house or flat that they are renting.
The laws in most English speaking countries are based on old "English common law", to varying degrees.
The laws in most countries on the European mainland are based on Napoleonic code, to varying degrees.
The other reason is that the income taxes in the English speaking countries are not as high. The U.S. income tax is one of the lowest in the world, even though it sometimes seems to get the most complaints. If a country had as much complaining about income taxes as the U.S. and collected as much income tax per complaint about the income tax as Denmark, then its income taxes would be more than 100%.
I would like you to name a few countries that don't and if the services are provided without property taxes, they are probably charged in some other way, those public services ARE NOT FREE