The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has never had the reputation of being motivated by the common good for our common family.
The function of the IMF is disarmingly simple. Rich countries pool their funds to help nations in financial or economic distress with the issuance of loans – often huge – meant to improve a country’s fiscal position. The IMF was a crucial prop of the post-World War II US-led consensus.
Its stated goals are to “foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.”
The website is festooned with the usual heart-tugging graphics of poverty and misery relieved by injecting money into national economies, with sometimes questionable outcomes. Yet, the IMF does receive kudos from such free-market policy shops like the Tax Foundation for its support of LVT (and VAT).
The land value tax does have a presence in the IMF mindset, but certainly not in a foundational way.
Now, Australia
So, it’s a mixed record for the IMF. However, the Australian IMF team is strong-arming Josh Frydenberg the treasurer of Australia to get over it and promote real and broad tax reform that includes a shift from hopelessly regressive stamp duty land taxes to a proper land value tax regime.
Along with the sweet sound of LVT there is a bit of a discordant note with the suggestion that VAT should be in the mix, which is problematic due to the demonstrated regressivity of the tax.