The real estate tax impact on economic growth

Abstract

Defining of the tax impact on economic growth is of particular importance in the face of exacerbation of socio-economic, technological, environmental and other problems. Property taxes, as ones that have less distorting impact on taxpayers’ economic behavior, compared to the greater part of the rest of the known taxes, are attracting more and more attention of many researchers and are considered from the standpoint of a potential fiscal policy instrument in ensuring positive dynamics of economic development. The purpose of the article is to summarize modern approaches and research results on the impact of the real estate tax on economic growth in order to identify opportunities for implementation of this tax instruments to stimulate economic development. It has been established that foreign researchers are studying the impact of taxes on real estate from the standpoint of distorting the distribution of resources in the economy, changing the decisions of economic agents on investment issues, growth rates of the housing stock, leveling income inequality, increasing the stability of tax systems to external shocks, etc. It was revealed that most authors consider the real estate tax as one of the most non-distorting, which, with a properly designed taxation mechanism, has practically no negative impact on economic activity, and therefore little hinders economic growth, helping to reduce income inequality, increase employment and income, efficient use of land. As a local tax, it is most often seen in terms of financing local budgets and is a useful tool for raising revenues and managing public finances, since raising effective rates and broadening the property tax base can offset cuts in other taxes that are more distortive of economic behavior. In Ukraine, the attention of the authors is focused on increasing the role of property taxes in providing income to local jurisdictions and strengthening their financial stability. There is a significant lack of national researches on the impact of real estate tax on economic growth in Ukraine. Further research on the functioning of the real estate tax in the new conditions of changing paradigms of economic development and international relations, and on the impact of the real estate tax on economic growth in Ukraine could reveal new aspects of its use in the national tax system.