The General Property Tax

Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States

“…We collected data on county-level wealth from statistics compiled every decade from property tax lists by the Census in their Wealth, Debt and Taxation publications between 1870-1930 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1880, 1890, 1902, 1912, 1922. These statistics provided information on total, real, and personal property value and the property tax rates for all counties.…”

“…There is evidence on land taxation in Egypt by already 3000BC which were levied in kind (i.e., agricultural product) rather than in cash p.265) and in Greece as early as around 600BC (Seligman (1890) and Walker (1984) p.265).…”

“…Criticisms of the property tax in the early 1900s. Economists led the charge and were at the forefront of proposals for reforms to the GPT (see Seligman (1890);McPherson (1907) for a summary of criticism, and Ely (1888); Jensen (1931); Bullock (1916b); for reviews and reform proposals. Another popular proposal was a single tax on land championed by George (1882).…”

“…• Linearly interpolate between Census ratios for 1850-1860, 1860-1870, 1870-1880, 1880-1890, and 1890-1900• Use 1900Census ratio for 1900, 1902Census ratio for 1901-1902, and 1904Census ratio for 1903-1904 • Use 16.5% ratio for 1905 -1907 12 and 80% assessment ratio for 1908 13 • Linearly interpolate between Census ratios for 1850 -1860, 1860 -1870, 1870 -1880, 1900 -1904, and 1904 -1912 • Use 1880 Census ratio for 1880 -1886…”

“…At the time, it was unique and different from tax systems in European countries. While property taxes have existed since Antiquity, as documented for Egypt (McGregor (1956)), Greece (Seligman (1890) and Walker (1984)), and Rome (Walker (1984)), they were typically based on land. 1 The Danegeld was the first system of land taxation in Europe after the fall of the Roman empire.…”