Introduction: In an agrarian society, ‘property’ included land and a few other agricultural and non-agricultural assets. With progresses and economies grew, a vast multitude of new assets emerged. Whereas ‘real property’ refers to real assets (such as land, natural objects on the land and improvements or constructions), ‘wealth’ is a multifaceted concept which includes value of real assets as well as bank deposits, businesses, shares and other financial instruments, personal assets (motor vehicles, furniture, electronics, precious metals), etc. While concepts of real property and property tax remain relevant in the context of local government tax (service charge) administration, at the national level, the concept of wealth is more appropriate since it subsumes real property as well as all new forms of assets in a modern society. Upon reviewing literature and practices in other countries, this paper adheres to the term wealth for all subsequent discussion.

Literature Review: For the purpose of the study on the impact of property tax on enterprise development, sources of data and other information on regulatory framework initially used include: the constitution of Bangladesh, various statutes under which property taxes are imposed and collected, the annual reports of the National Board Revenue (NBR), the apex tax authority in Bangladesh, relevant fiscal policy documents of the Government of Bangladesh such as the Report of the Taxation Enquiry Commission (1979) and the Report of the Revenue Reform Commission (2003), the World Bank’s An Agenda for Tax Reform (December 1989) for Bangladesh and the IMF’s Tax Policy Handbook (Shome 1995). For literature purpose, available research publications have been consulted.
There are three types of land-related property taxes in Bangladesh – one local tax (holding tax) and two other central taxes (land development tax and