Introduction

The Porto Alegre City Council (Brazil) and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (USA) are organizing together the International Seminar on Property Taxation, aiming at promoting the discussion on equity and efficiency in the property tax administration. During three days, national and international experts will be analyzing alternatives for improving the Brazilian property tax system. Following the seminar, a two-day course on property taxation will take place.

The fair distribution of the property tax burden and the provision of high standard of public services are common goals to be achieved at the local government level. Pioneering governmental initiatives, observed in Brazil in the last decade, include the implementation of the Participative Budget scheme (‘Orçamento Participativo’) and the use of the property tax as an instrument for deterring land speculation or promoting rational urban development.

However, political, legal and practical obstacles have been responsible for the maintenance of inequities and inefficiencies in the property tax. At the local government level, the role of the property tax is vital in the processes of achieving the sound equilibrium between spending and revenue raising in the public sector, providing public services satisfactorily and promoting the economic and social development.

The Porto Alegre City Council aims at, through this Seminar, providing elements able to contribute to the establishment of a fairer and more effective property tax system in Brazilian municipalities.

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a non-profit educational institution established in 1974 to study and teach land policy and taxation. By supporting multi-disciplinary research, educational and publication programs, the institute brings together diverse viewpoints to expand useful knowledge in three program areas: taxation of land and buildings, land markets and land as a common property. The goal of the institute is to make knowledge comprehensible and accessible to citizens, policy-makers and scholars, and to improve public and private decision making.

Objectives

• Examining critical factors for improving the property tax in Brazil

• Establishing, based on national and international successful experiences, primary directions to pursue a fairer and more effective property tax system

• Encouraging dialog among local authorities, members of judiciary branch of government, legislators and community

• Promoting co-operating among municipalities to achieve common goals in property taxation.