Publication: Using Satellite Imagery to Create Tax Maps and Enhance Local Revenue Collection
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Date
2020
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0003-6846
Published
2020
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Although taxes on land and property have many desirable attributes, the challenge of ensuring completeness of tax rolls and currency of valuations preclude their effective use to support urbanization and service provision in many developing countries. The example of Kigali shows how building footprints and heights generated from high-resolution satellite imagery, together with sales prices and routine statistical data, allow to assess and improve coverage and design of property tax systems. We show that only 40% of potential land lease fee revenue (of US$ 4.9 million) was collected and that moving to 1% value-based tax would increase revenue almost 10 times while being less regressive than the current system. While this could allow reducing the tax burden for low-income groups, exemptions should be applied with caution based on careful empirical analysis.
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Publication Using Satellite Imagery to Revolutionize Creation of Tax Maps and Local Revenue Collection(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05)The technical complexity of ensuring that tax rolls are complete and valuations current is often perceived as a major barrier to bringing in more property tax revenues in developing countries. This paper shows how high-resolution satellite imagery makes it possible to assess the completeness of existing tax maps by estimating built-up areas based on building heights and footprints. Together with information on sales prices from the land registry, targeted surveys, and routine statistical data, this makes it possible to use mass valuation procedures to generate tax maps. The example of Kigali illustrates the reliability of the method and the potentially far-reaching revenue impacts. 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Together with information on sales prices from the land registry, targeted surveys, and routine statistical data, this makes it possible to use mass valuation procedures to generate tax maps. The example of Kigali illustrates the reliability of the method and the potentially far-reaching revenue impacts. Estimates based on modelling show that heightened tax compliance and a move to a one percent ad valorem tax would yield a tenfold increase in revenue from public land.Publication Using Satellite Imagery to Assess Impacts of Soil and Water Conservation Measures(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-01)Although efforts at soil and water conservation are routinely viewed as instrumental in reducing vulnerability to climate change, their impact has rarely been quantified. 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It thus appears that satellite imagery can improve the design and near-real-time monitoring of sustainable land management interventions for watersheds and landscape.Publication Reforming Land Valuation and Taxation in Ukraine(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-13)The shift from administrative to market-based property valuation is critical for effective decentralization and local revenue collection in Ukraine. To demonstrate the viability of such a shift, this paper uses prices for nearly 200,000 agricultural land sale transactions in 2021–24 together with parcel attributes from public data to estimate a hedonic model and predict prices for all of Ukraine’s 7.5 million commercial agricultural land parcels. Despite the war, mean predicted prices are significantly above current ‘normative monetary’ valuations (NMVs). Inter-regional differences are pronounced. Steps to extend mass appraisal to residential urban properties and legislative changes needed to replace NMVs with a market-based approach are discussed, noting that a shift to market-based valuation will have far-reaching implications for the volume of public and private investment that can be attracted to support reconstruction; the likely effectiveness of such investment; and local governments’ ability to benefit from any land value appreciation that may result from it.Publication Using Satellite Imagery and a Farmer Registry to Assess Agricultural Support in Conflict Settings(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-20)While cash transfers have emerged as an attractive option to minimize negative long-term impacts of conflict, the scope for targeting and assessing their impact in such settings is often challenging. 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