Sorry Bbloff there is absolutely NOTHING fair about land tax.
"Surely you accept it's not healthy (or fair) for a speculator to reap the rewards of sitting idly on a block of land in the middle of the CBD? "
If they own it they have the right to do what they like with it.
"If not, how else do you propose to stop this practice, if not a land tax?"
If it really becomes a problem then possibly laws could be put in place where if the land is not being used for an extended period of time then a forced sale may be enacted.
The real problem with land tax is how it is applied i.e. based on cumulative land value. How would you like it if you owned a business and its premises now in the early years the land tax bill was manageable but then over time the assessable land value increases significantly as does the land tax bill. This land tax bill then seriously compromises the business's earning capacity - there are plenty of stories out there like that.
