Start Date
5-4-2018 3:15 PM
End Date
5-4-2018 4:00 PM
Description
The presentation discusses international best practice in mass property valuation and property taxation in comparison to the case of Finland and reveals shortcomings relevant globally. It raises a number of issues with the equality and accuracy of the property taxes stemming from the ancient split of property taxes to separate land and building taxes, valuation that targets condominium buildings instead of apartments, restricted access to apartment market information, reluctance to change the system, etc. Earlier work by the World Bank, FAO and the Centre of Registers of Lithuania defined pre-conditions for successful value-based recurrent property taxes including access to quality price data, efficient tax administration, and appropriate valuation infrastructure. Finland has reliable land and property records, ample geospatial data, transparent markets and strong valuation infrastructure that adhere to international standards, and all these are applied to property taxation valuation. Importantly, it is becoming also increasingly recognized that apart from the property taxation application, mass valuation systems have the potential to be used for a multitude of purposes. The presentation's conclusions on the way forward in Finland are relevant globally for countries and cities introducing recurrent property taxes in the era of covering digital records and transparent property markets. The presentation gives views about obstacles to change the property taxation system even if the infrastructure for that is good and problems with the present system obvious.
Publication Date
April 2018
Recommended Citation
Viitanen, Kauko PhD and Törhönen, Mika-Petteri PhD, "Pragmatism or principles 2: Property taxation valuation in Finland" (2018). International Research Symposium. 12.
https://researchexchange.iaao.org/irs/irs18/sessions/12
Pragmatism or principles 2: Property taxation valuation in Finland
The presentation discusses international best practice in mass property valuation and property taxation in comparison to the case of Finland and reveals shortcomings relevant globally. It raises a number of issues with the equality and accuracy of the property taxes stemming from the ancient split of property taxes to separate land and building taxes, valuation that targets condominium buildings instead of apartments, restricted access to apartment market information, reluctance to change the system, etc. Earlier work by the World Bank, FAO and the Centre of Registers of Lithuania defined pre-conditions for successful value-based recurrent property taxes including access to quality price data, efficient tax administration, and appropriate valuation infrastructure. Finland has reliable land and property records, ample geospatial data, transparent markets and strong valuation infrastructure that adhere to international standards, and all these are applied to property taxation valuation. Importantly, it is becoming also increasingly recognized that apart from the property taxation application, mass valuation systems have the potential to be used for a multitude of purposes. The presentation's conclusions on the way forward in Finland are relevant globally for countries and cities introducing recurrent property taxes in the era of covering digital records and transparent property markets. The presentation gives views about obstacles to change the property taxation system even if the infrastructure for that is good and problems with the present system obvious.