Who Wins, Who Loses
Any tax reform results in some paying more and some paying less. The general rule with LVT is that those whose income is derived from wages and interest more than the rent of land* will pay less. Landowners with a high ratio of improvements to unimproved land pay less. Those whose wealth is derived mostly from land rent will pay more.
Homeowners, laborers, farmers, investors (except those who invest largely in unimproved property), retailers, service providers, builders, renters, manufacturers, and the poor will see a lower tax burden. Those who own or invest in unimproved property, and those whose income is derived more from the rent of unimproved land more than wages and interest, will pay more.
All will benefit from the removal of taxation of productive activities (sales taxes, income taxes, and taxes on improvements). In fact, economist William Vickrey (see
Endorsements of LVT), was adamant that even those who carried the heaviest tax burdens under LVT would receive more in benefits than they would pay in taxes.
* The terms used are in the sense of classical economics. The factors of production are land, labor, and capital. The return to each is rent, wages, and interest, respectively and exclusively. Land refers to natural resources. Labor refers to both physical and intellectual human exertion. Capital refers to wealth used to increase wealth. Wealth refers to the value of the product of human labor. Rent is the value of natural resouces determined by its demand. Wages refer to the return for physical and intellectual human exertion. Interest refers to the return to capital due to its use in increasing the capacity of labor.