Thursday, 30 August 2018

Taxing Land, Not Investment

The report – “Taxing Land, Not Investment” – calls for the abolition of business rates and its replacement with a tax on land values, the Commercial Landowner Levy (CLL). The levy would remove buildings and machinery from calculations and tax only the land value of commercial sites, boosting investment and cutting taxes for businesses in nine out of ten English local authorities.

This ground-breaking research was led by founder of the Lib Dem Business and Entrepreneurs Network (LDBEN) Andrew Dixon, in response to mounting concerns about the negative impact of business rates on struggling high streets and the wider economy.  

Key recommendations from the report include:

• Business rates should be abolished and replaced by a Commercial Landowner Levy based on the value of the land only
• The levy should be paid by owners rather than tenants
• Non-residential stamp duty should be scrapped to improve the efficiency of the commercial property market
• Commercial land should be taxed regardless of whether the buildings above it are occupied; the tax should also apply to unused and derelict commercial land

Follow this link for more info: http://www.libdems.org.uk/taxingland-notinvestment