A Study of European Land Tax Systems

The research seeks to examine the nature, scope and implementation of property taxation systems in Europe. The paper builds upon research carried out in 1999–2000 by the authors (under the David C. Lincoln Fellowship program) in respect of 24 countries. This paper expands the coverage to some 42 countries but also widens the study to include an overview of government organisation within those countries. It also includes a brief description of the main sources of local government finance.

It first considers the main types of property taxation that can be found in Europe such as annual property taxes, inheritance taxes, value added tax etc. and attempts in a series of tables to compare the main features of each tax as adopted in the countries studied.

It then considers the background to the property taxation and deals with issues such as the current tax reforms that are being currently undertaken within Europe. It then outlines the impact of such changes for all aspects of property taxation. Consideration is then given to some of the key generic features of the systems implemented across Europe — the nature of the taxpayer, basis of valuation, exemptions, appeals etc. with a particular emphasis on annual property taxes. The final and major part of the work describes the current knowledge of around 190 the individual taxes, duties and levies as applied in the 42 countries studied.