Land Tax Reform

The Woodhaven Trust supports organisations that seek to reform how land is taxed in the United Kingdom. Land value tax has been referred to as “the perfect tax” and the economic efficiency of a land value tax has been known since the 18th Century.

A land value tax is a progressive tax, in that the tax burden falls on titleholders in proportion to the value of locations, the ownership of which is highly correlated with overall wealth and income.

Land value taxation is currently implemented in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Singapore and Taiwan. It has also been applied to smaller extents in parts of Australia and the USA, notably Pennsylvania.

Fairer Share

In 2020, The Woodhaven Trust funded Fairer Tax Campaign CIC, which led to the launch of Fairer Share.

Fairer Share is actively campaigning to abolish Council Tax and Stamp Duty Land Tax — and replace them with The Proportional Property Tax, a solution that many organisations including IFS, Resolution Foundation, IPPR have recommended. This approach will reduce tax bills for those people who live outside London by £6.5 billion annually.

If you would like to read more about the campaign, you can:

Commercial Landowner Levy

The Woodhaven Trust funded a report, Taxing Land, Not Investment, which focused on reforming business rates and replacing it with a Commercial Landowner Levy. The paper received supportive coverage in the press, notably the FT, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Economist.