Landlords are taxed. Their rental income is subject to income tax, when they sell the home they have to pay a lot more taxes than if they were selling their primary residence, and they have to pay property tax.

Now, I do think residential real estate rental corporations should be straight up outlawed.

They are taxed, but I think they could be taxed more and better. Specifically, I – and many others, including many an economist – think we ought to be implementing a land value tax.

Why LVT and not just leave it to income taxes? In short, LVT is just a really good tax. Progressive, widely regarded by economists as “the perfect tax”, incentivizes efficient use of land, discourages speculation and rent-seeking, economically efficient, and hard to evade. Plus, critically regarding landlords, land value taxes can’t be passed on to tenants, both in economic theory and in observed practice.