If I own £100K worth of land, and the government announces a 1% annual land tax, it's likely the value of my land will fall by about ~25-33% overnight.

If you think that's morally unobjectionable, fine, but I'd love to know what happens when all the landowners who own rural land that doesn't have a profitable development path attached to it can't pay their tax bills. Have the state seize it all?

Or do they just claim it's of negligible value and avoid the tax?

You would sell the development for as much as you can get, regardless of tax. The people buying from you aren't going to pay you more just because the government raised your taxes.

> all the landowners who own rural land that doesn't have a profitable development path attached to it

If it doesn't have a profitable development path attached, the price(and therefore "value") will go down, as will the tax burden.

> can't pay their tax bills

Labour in the UK introduced a 20% inheritance tax on >£2M rural property.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/01/farmers-shoc...

Although the rules were later somewhat changed. Perhaps after pressure due to terminally ill farmers committing suicide (before the tax came into effect so that they could pass on their inheritance).

> Or do they just claim it's of negligible value and avoid the tax?

Property is already taxed based on its assessed value in California.