Resource Rentals or Resource Taxes
Untaxing the productive economy creates wealth while taxing nature conserves the planet. We would tax the use of land, metals, oil, electromagnetic waves, water, agricultural quotas, and any resource which is part of the commons. The principle is that we pay for what we hold or take, but not what we do or make (unless we make them using precious resources or the product is environmentally or socially harmful.)
All private companies which extract, use or sell basic natural resources will pay an annual rental to the public purse.
If hydro electric power stations currently owned by Government were sold to private owners, then the new owners would have to pay a water tax for our public revenue.
We have a philosophy of earthsharing. So anyone who commondeers as their private property a part of the commons, our common wealth, must pay an annual rent to the public purse. The commons includes land, metals, oil, electromagnetic waves, water, agricultural quotas, intellectual property, in fact any resource which is part of the commons. The principle is that we pay for what we hold or take, but not what we do or make (unless we make them using precious resources or the product is environmentally or socially harmful.)
All private companies which sell basic natural resources will pay an annual rental to the public purse.
If hydro electric power stations currently owned by Government were sold to private owners, then the new owners would have to pay a water tax for our public revenue.
Water tax. The worldwide demand for water is predicted to increase steeply and we have no reason to believe New Zealand will be an exception to this trend.
The irrigation tax proposed by the Greens is a good example of a resource tax. It is a tax on the use of a scarce common resource, water for personal gain. If farmers were taxed according to the amount of the aquifers they used, then water intensive farming would not be as profitable as dry farming. The tax or rental sends a price signal to producers. Dairy farms would give way to sheep and beef farms and horticulture, thus reversing the trend to dried up and polluted rivers. It would also mean overseas owned utilities and monoculture agribusiness would start to pay their fair share of tax.
Likewise a resource tax on scarce resources like oil would include petroleum based fertilisers and pesticides. This would hasten the move to organics. Another effect would be to minimise taxes for sustainable farming and consumers with a low carbon footprint. Changing to resource taxes would simplify the tax system.
A study in Australia by Tony O’Brien of Earthsharing worked out the potential revenue from resource taxes. (We are not suggesting taxing all of these areas) O’Brien’s list included land value taxes, minerals, oil, coal and gas, waveband spectrum, radio and TV and telecommunication services. He suggested all commercial operations which require exclusive use of part of a natural resources should pay an annual rental for that exclusive right. This would include communication-satellite orbits, access points to transportation by water, road, rail and air, aircraft time slots, runway and hangar spaces and gates in airport, aquifers, irrigation and dam sites, right of way eg street parking in cities, forests, fisheries, liquor and transport licences, some patents giving effective control over plants, minerals and genetic materials, ocean shipping routes, fishing grounds and other offshore areas. He added up the potential revenue at A$146.8 billion.
Ralph Nader in his address to the Occupy Wall Streeet protestors argues that Research and Development component of business profits is in the commons because it is part of our cultural commons.
China has of late moved towards a rare earth tax and has adjusted its coal taxes upwards. Australia is proposing a tax on mining.