Economists tend to strongly favor increased reliance on (well-designed) property taxes owing to such attractive economic properties as less distortion and greater fairness than other taxes, but good revenue potential. Still, there is widespread popular resistance to their increased use stemming in part from their transparency and the relatively limited potential for avoidance and evasion. In fact, even though the property tax has been called by its proponents the “perfect tax” (Webb, 2013), it is often maligned as the most hated among taxes (Cabral and Hoxby, 2012).
Not only are property taxes unpopular, they are also somewhat difficult to implement. Calculating a market value–based tax on land and buildings is challenging and requires substantial investment in administrative infrastructure. This includes establishing a comprehensive official register that records physical coordinates in addition to ownership and property value data.