> The issue with those taxes are that they are avoidable and then a property owner has found a way to not pay for the upkeep costs of their property again.
100% true that a physical property is not exactly going anywhere, and so it's extremely convenient to use as a stand-in for wealth / ability to pay taxes. That said, this could be worked around if governments were incented to do so, given that finance is almost entirely electronic at this point; offshore banking could be reined in, for example. There will always be loopholes and ways to avoid a tax burden, but if the (financial) penalties are commensurate to the dodge, then there's a reasonable disincentive.
100% true that a physical property is not exactly going anywhere, and so it's extremely convenient to use as a stand-in for wealth / ability to pay taxes. That said, this could be worked around if governments were incented to do so, given that finance is almost entirely electronic at this point; offshore banking could be reined in, for example. There will always be loopholes and ways to avoid a tax burden, but if the (financial) penalties are commensurate to the dodge, then there's a reasonable disincentive.