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Landlords should have to pay income tax on their rental properties regardless of whether they're rented out or not. (gothamist.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

414 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/12162

Why? Because apparently they need some more incentive to keep units occupied. Also, even though a property might be vacant, there's still imputed rental income there. Its owner is just receiving it in the form of enjoying the unit for himself instead of receiving an actual rent check from a tenant. That imputed rent ought to be taxed like any other income.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's how it is here in Belgium. I pay tax on the income I would get if I would rent out my apartment, even when I'm actually living in it.

Luckily the amounts are based on rent prices as they were in 1975. It's indexed, which means it gets adjusted for (general) inflation, but not for the increased prices in the housing market which is much higher than inflation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

why is that lucky?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Luckily

for landlords.
Not for the tax pot and the general good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No not for landlords, for homeowners. As it is, it's just an unfair tax that increases the cost of homeownership, making it unattainable for lower incomes. If they wanted to target landlords, they should tax actual rent income instead.

Of course, no tax ever gets abolished because the government starts to rely on it in their budget, so we'll be stuck with this forever.