Here we go again. Another “simple fix” from Carson City that somehow ends with higher taxes and more government control.
This time, lawmakers want to close what they call a “loophole” in Nevada’s commerce tax.
The target is real estate investment trusts, or REITs. These are large companies that own property, including homes in the Las Vegas valley.
On the surface, it sounds reasonable.
Big companies are buying homes. Families are struggling to buy. So just tax the big guys more and the problem goes away, right?
Not so fast.
A Tax Hike by Any Other Name
Let’s call this what it is. This proposal is a tax increase.
The commerce tax already applies to businesses making over $4 million a year. REITs were exempted back in 2015. Now lawmakers want to remove that exemption.
That means higher costs for those companies. And in the real world, higher costs don’t just disappear. They get passed on.
Higher rents. Less investment. Fewer homes built.
That’s not helping working families. That’s making things worse.
Gallant’s Head-Scratcher
What really stands out here is Republican Assemblywoman Danielle Gallant.
She says she supports closing the loophole because it won’t affect small investors like her.
But that misses the bigger point.
Republicans are supposed to stand for low taxes and free markets. Not picking winners and losers. Not raising taxes just because the target is unpopular.
You don’t defend free markets by carving out exceptions when it’s politically convenient.
And this isn’t the first time Gallant has found a reason to support a tax hike. It’s becoming a pattern.
She voted to extend a “temporary” property tax hike last session – and did so while your right to vote on it even though that “vote of the people” was a condition of the “temporary” hike in the first place.
The Real Problem Isn’t Corporations
Yes, big investors own homes in Las Vegas. That part is true.
But here’s what the data actually shows.
Investors bought around 11,000 homes in a recent year. And nearly 100,000 since the Great Recession.
Sounds huge, right?
But large corporate players only own a small slice of the total housing market. Around 1.6 percent of all single-family homes.
The vast majority are owned by small landlords. Regular people with a few properties.
So even if you hit the big companies with a tax, you’re barely touching the overall market.
Supply, Supply, Supply
Here’s the part lawmakers don’t want to talk about.
Nevada doesn’t have a corporate ownership problem. It has a housing shortage.
We’re short about 124,000 homes statewide.
Why?
Too many rules. Too much red tape. Slow permits. High building costs. Limited land.
In simple terms, we’re not building enough homes.
And when supply is low, prices go up. It doesn’t matter who’s buying. That’s basic Econ 101.
The “Easy Fix” That Doesn’t Fix Anything
Even experts say closing this tax loophole won’t move the needle much.
The tax rates are tiny. We’re talking fractions of a percent.
That’s not enough to force companies to sell thousands of homes. At most, it might slightly reduce profits.
So what do we get?
More taxes. More government interference. And little to no real change in housing prices.
If lawmakers actually want to help families buy homes, the answer is simple: Make it easier to build.
Cut the red tape. Speed up permits. Open up more land. Lower costs.
That’s how you increase supply. That’s how you bring prices down.
Not by punishing one group of property owners because they’re easy political targets.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about fairness. It’s about control.
And once government starts deciding who can own property and how much they should be taxed for it, don’t expect it to stop with big corporations.
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