That seems like suboptimal policy - even to a layman like me. For one, if you're not making money off an asset you're already paying a "tax" in terms of opportunity cost.
Second, it feels unfair - taxes are the price we pay for prospering in, and benefiting from a just society with strong property rights. So if you're not profiting (either investment/business returns or earned income), why should you pay tax?
Third, for something that has a fairly cut-and-dry definition, income is already fudged and mis-reported on so many tax returns. Property valuation is way more subjective; think about things like art, patents, copyrights, real estate without comparable sales, software, trade secrets, brands and trademarks. Correctly and fairly taxing it seems nightmarish, might require far more bureaucracy. It would certainly be more intrusive - the government would need to know every single item of value that you own.
Of course, I'm no expert and maybe there are places that have successfully implemented a property-only tax system that includes non-real property.
No, we should tax consumption. A consumption tax encourages savings, which lowers cost of capital, which is overall an economic stimulant.
Most people say: "But wait! A consumption tax is regressive!". No, you are thinking of something like a sales tax collected at point of sale. A consumption tax can be progressive, and I do advocate for a progressive consumption tax. It is no harder to administer than the current US income tax. All the entities currently required to report to the IRS are sufficient to implement a consumption tax formula, and mostly even with the same data, although probably with a few tweaks. Income - net savings == consumption. Apply table. Done. Rich people will still buy yachts and pay their share of tax. You could even implement UBI and/or welfare as a "negative consumption tax", and eliminate huge swaths of bureaucracy.
I wouldn’t say tax property per se, but rather just tax the land itself. Land is the fixed resource, but you can always develop more buildings on it. This would encourage people to use the land to it’s full extent.
Part 16 of the Mirrlees comprehensive review of taxation [0] in the UK goes into more detail.
Basically, we should tax wealth, not income.