Ways The Government Takes Our Property

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Ways The Government Takes Our Property

How It Destroys or Reduces The Value Of Our Property And Lives

Subjects > Government
The ways that goverment takes away our property is almost endless. Trying to come up with a comprehensive list of the ways government takes our property and resources is an exhausting exercise.

In addition to outright confiscation of our property, there are government regulations that can make our property essentially worthless. When the government desires to use a property, and forces the sale of real property through a declaration of eminent domain, it is supposed to pay for the property at "fair market value". But there are many other things that the government can do to us that reduce the value of our property, or drammatically limit our ability to use our property. Often these things make the property almost worthless. While many of these ways of taking away property don't constitute actual taking of the property, and are just regulations regarding use, individuals lose the value of their assets with no recourse.

Yes, many of these things work in tandem with a "benefit" provided by government. But nearly any benefit that the government can provide is made possible by taking something from someone else. As you look through the following list, consider how deeply should the government be involved in taking away from one group and giving to another? How deeply should the government be involved in limiting the contracts that freely consenting individuals can make with each other?

Eminent domain - The government decides they want to install a road, an offramp, or that your property is "blighted", you can be forced to sell your property for "fair market value". A Supreme Court ruling in June 2005 seems to say that the overriding concern is how much money the municipality can make in tax revenue. It seems to have practically removed the historic requirement that the taking be for a "public use". For example, a municipality can decide that it is ok to take your property even if the only projected (not guaranteed or even certain) benefit is that they can get more tax revenue when they force you to sell your property to someone else who promises to develop the property into some higher taxed use. In New London Connecticut homeowners are being forced to sell out to a property developer that wants to build office buildings and hotels.
- In New London Connecticut, some owners of $300,000 homes were offered as much as $1,000,000 by the developer, but still refused to sell. Should this simply be viewed as the forced receipt of a "lottery ticket", or should the user
- If a municipality enforces eminent domain against a busines, the business owner is given fair market value for the property, but no compensational at all for the value of the goodwill, or special circumstances of the location that make the business profitable.
Zoning laws - Closely related to imminent domain where you are forced to give up your property, zoning laws restrict your right to use your property as you see fit. Of course the use of your property has effects on your neighbors, and it is from this possibility that all zoning laws derive their right to restrict.
- Restrictions on height of fences
- Restrictions on height of buildings
- Restrictions on use of property
- Restrictions on type of construction
- Restrictions on ownership of animals
- Preventing sale of improved properties that did not apply for all possible permits prior to improvements.
- The government can change the use of a property thus eliminating the ability of someone to build houses on their property, eventhough in the past they might have had the right to do so. However, if the individual could still place an advertising bulletin board on their property, then this is not considered a "taking", and the individual is considered to still be able to derive some kind of value from the property, and therefore doesn't have to be reimbursed by the goverment.
- Cost of building permits

There can be no taxation without misrepresentation.

Taxes - The ultimate taking of property by the government. In Sweden, which is a leading country for the rates of taxation, the total tax burden on the GDP is around 50%. The number of taxes used by government to confiscate the wealth of citizens includes:
- Income taxes
- Payroll taxes
- Workmens compensation taxes
- Sales taxes - In some areas in the U.S. the sales tax has risen to 10%
- VAT taxes
- Excise taxes
  - Gasoline taxes
  - Cigarette taxes
  - Alcohol taxes
- Property taxes
- Corporate minimum taxes
- Alternative minimum tax
- Estate taxes, or inheritance tax - The government takes away your property after you die.
- Gift tax
- Special assessments - If the government decides to improve the street in front of your business, you can be liable for a portion of the cost through a special assessment against your property.
- Road taxes
Licenses, permits, and registrations
- Registration fees and permit fees - While not considered a tax, that is the practical effect of having to pay the government to get "permission" to do lawful things.
- Time wasted in filing government paperwork - Many activities require you to waste time interfacing with the government. This is time that you could have used productively, or even for relaxation, but are instead forced to spend on behalf of giving the government what it demands
  - Standing in lines - Often the waste in time involves standing in long lines serviced by government workers that have no real incentive (like competition) to be quick and efficient.
- Penalties for not filing, or improper filing, of government paperwork
  - If an individual fails to make an annual disclosure to the government of foreign bank accounts and securities with an aggregate value of $10,000 or more, the penalty is 50% of the aggregate value, or $10,000, whichever is greater.
- Interest on penalties and unpaid taxes, or permit fees
Immigration fees - Applying for immigration papers and permissions is a special category of government taking of time and resources. It's particularly efficient at penalizing people trying to enjoy the most basic of freedoms, like have a spouse or children live with them in their own country of citizenship.
Tolls on bridges and roads - Often these tax moneys are misappropriated to pay for things other than the maintenance of the bridge, forcing users of the bridge to subsidize things that they don't use.
Smog laws - Smog check laws that make your car unsaleable if it doesn't meet a certain level of emissions. Some states such as California make it illegal to sell your car if it can't pass a smog test. If your car fails smog, you might have no way to dispose of it without additional cost. Your only way to get rid of it might involve paying a junk yard company to get rid of it.
- The government does nothing to reimburse the owner who is thus penalized. The thought is that denying registration and public road use of vehicle, because of inability to pass a smog test, is not really a taking because the vehicle could still be used on a private property.
Glancing goose test - In the United States, if there is enough water on your property that flying geese could look down and think about landing, your property could be reclassified as a wetland, putting severe restrictions on your ability to develop your property.
Real estate disclosure laws
- If there was a murder in your home, you must disclose that to potential buyers. Many people will refuse to live in a property where someone was killed, although even more people will refuse to live even where someone died of natural causes. As a landlord of a property, the value of your property could be adversely affected for years by the criminal acts of your tenants, even criminal acts that made no actual tangible change to the property itself.

If the government thinks you are a criminal, they have many creative ways to take your property:

Walk around with too much money, and the police can steal it from you on the mere suspicion that you might be going to do something criminal with it.
Prosecution for a crime that you are ultimately found innocent of - You seldom get any reimbursement for the expense of your defense. Government, on the other hand, often has almost unlimited resources in comparison to you, to turn you into a criminal.
Criminal court judgments
Administrative fines - Many government agencies claim the right to levy fines and penalties against individuals and companies
Confiscating properties where drugs are sold, manufactured, or grown
Impounding of vehicles - There are many reasons why the government can take away your vehicle
- Posting a for sale sign in your car window can give the police the right to ticket, or to impound, your vehicle. In Marin County, a vehicle that has been cited in the last 30 days for parking too long can be impounded if it is found anywhere else on a public street with a for sale sign. In San Francisco, vehicles parked on the frontage streets next to 19th Ave. are often ticketed for displaying "For Sale" signs.
- Confiscating the cars of people involved in street prostitution

Many businesses wouldn't exist if it weren't for the operation and regulations of government. Do you consider as a tax the cost in dealing with all these other businesses that the government requires you to deal with?

Business that get advantage because of the operation of government:

Tax preparers - The most obvious kind of business that benefits from complexity of the government tax rules
Lawyers - Much law deal with mediating between the people and goverment, and even more in dealing with the requirements of government.
Insurance companies - Many kinds of insurance are legally mandated
Bail Bonds - Criminal defendants can get out of jail while waiting for trial by posting bail. If you don't have the full amount of bail, you can put up 10% of the bail amount and have a bail bond company put up the money for you. This 10% is lost to the bail bond company, whether or not you are found to be innocent.
Inspection Businesses - Many kinds of inspections are mandated by government.

Ways The Government Takes Our Property

Featured: Featured Stories | Picture Gallery

Ways The Government Takes Our Property

How It Destroys or Reduces The Value Of Our Property And Lives

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