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It is passed on to the consumer but the consumer in this case is the landlord not the renter.

There are two markets with two types of consumer here:

1) The market for a roof over your head. This is highly (but not completely) inelastic. People need somewhere to live.

2) The market for property as an investment. Higher taxes on an asset disincentivizes ownership of that asset. This is elastic because there are tons of other asset classes you can pour surplus wealth into.

Effectively a land value tax already exists for renters - in demand locations have higher rents. The "tax receipts" just dont flow into government coffers.




So do landlords just eat that tax increase or do they raise rents?


They'd eat it.

Depending on how high and fast it was raised it would likely lead to a steady stream of landlords defaulting on their mortgages and leaving the banks holding the property.




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