Neutral tax rate + demand question

[jalbatross 2]

I recently started a new region with 4 cities. City A, the largest city with the highest concentration of R$$/R$$$ and CO$$/CO$$$, was developing well. Low-wealth jobs for the CO buildings were being filled by neighboring cities in the region, and demand for I-HT, I-M, and CS$/CS$$/CS$$$ was satisfied by placing specialized cities next to City A.

Up until about 450k population, City A was able to maintain a stable demand for R with 9.2/9.0/9.3 tax rates. However, demand for all R suddenly tanked into the negative! After opening new cities in the region and checking CAPs with plugins, I found that regional demand for R was still sky-high and that CAPs for R in City A were 30% at the most. It was only after adusting taxes about -0.3% for all R that the demand for R in City A returned to levels that reflected CAP-adjusted regional demand for R.

Now, for my question:

As cities get larger, does the neutral tax rate become lower? If not, what else could have been causing the demand for R in City A to suddenly plunge so deeply into the negative?

If so, are there any sources that point out the specifics of this tax rate decay?

  Edited June 2, 2012 by jalbatross  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Now that's an interesting question. I don't know a specific answer, but as my margin grows in the city, after applying such ordinances as I usually want, I start dropping tax rates to try and keep the profit at a reasonable rate, somewhere around $2,000 a month. My largest city with only 375K Sims has a current, across the board rate of 7% except ID which is shut out. I generally drop rates by 0.2% when the spirit moves me, and have never experienced any demand shut outs that I did not deliberately cause.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Sim population is not static. It grows, ages and dies, so you have to keep things attractive for new blood. When a neighborhood matures, I close any schools that have less than 10 enrollment, or sometimes increase the number of lower wealth zoning, to attract more R$ needing education. This may require serious urban renewal using the dezoning tool (v) followed by some new zoning.

[Cob92 360]

I know in SC3K, neutral tax rates got lower as the city increased in size; SC4 might still have a lesser version of that mechanic lingering in the code (back in SC3K, it was so severe that a large city could hardly tax its residents at all without complaints).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I know in SC3K, neutral tax rates got lower as the city increased in size; SC4 might still have a lesser version of that mechanic lingering in the code (back in SC3K, it was so severe that a large city could hardly tax its residents at all without complaints).

Interesting, but why do I have the impression that SC4 was totally new code? However, I think that's a good idea as income increases to have a lower neutral rate. The city I mentioned above is now down to 5% but the income is well above 10K per month.

[jalbatross 2]

I agree. I've found that good placement of mass transit with the NAM has allowed the city to obtain ludicrous amounts of income even with lowered tax rates.

[cogeo 960]

Here is the neutral tax rate as a function of city population:

Population (≤) Neutral Tax Rate

150000 9.0%

450000 8.9%

600000 8.8%

900000 8.7%

1050000 8.6%

1350000 8.5%

1500000 8.4%

1650000 8.3%

1950000 8.2%

2100000 8.1%

2400000 8.0%

2550000 7.9%

2700000 7.8%

2850000 7.7%

3000000 7.6%

3150000 7.5%

3450000 7.4%

3600000 7.3%

3750000 7.2%

3900000 7.1%

4050000 7.0%

4200000 6.9%

4350000 6.7%

4500000 6.6%

4650000 6.5%

4800000 6.4%

4950000 6.2%

5100000 6.1%

5250000 5.9%

5400000 5.8%

5550000 5.6%

5700000 5.4%

5850000 5.1%

6000000 4.8%

>6000000 4.0%

To see the neutral tax rate ingame you can use the Census Repository Query used in my (or in one of the original Census Repository buildings). The query uses the above "hard-coded" table (it is coded in the LUA script). I don't know if the data are correct or where they came from. For example, what happens in the case of a mostly business city, with a large commercial but a relatively small residential population, are the neutral rates the same for both the commercial and the residential sector? I have discovered that the neutral tax rate is available as a game-supplied value in one of the game's scripts. I will soon update the Census script so that it uses this value instead of the above table. But not being my own work, I'm not going to release this, so feel free to ask me to send you a copy if you want.

  Edited June 5, 2012 by cogeo  

[jalbatross 2]

On 6/5/2012 at 8:54 AM, cogeo said:

I will soon update the Census script so that it uses this value instead of the above table. But not being my own work, I'm not going to release this, so feel free to ask me to send you a copy if you want.

I'd appreciate a copy. Thanks for the response!

[RyanSim 5]

you got the opera fix?

[woxihuanaa 1]

On 6/5/2012 at 8:54 AM, cogeo said:

Population (≤) Neutral Tax Rate

By the way, I want to know the definition of "Population"

Does it mean only Residents, or the sum up of R+CO+CS+I?

[Prophet42 1,501]

Depends on the calculation the simulator is performing at the time.  Population for health, education, age, neutral tax rate, population display and residential demand are based only on residential population.  Since sims don't live in commercial or industrial buildings, the commercial and industrial population are only a reflection of how many sims are working in that sector and as such the "population" is only used for demand calculation, as far as I know.

[twalsh102 1,601]

On 8/15/2019 at 7:50 AM, woxihuanaa said:

By the way, I want to know the definition of "Population"

Does it mean only Residents, or the sum up of R+CO+CS+I?

My initial answer to this was relying on old information.  According to the SC4 Deluxe version of the Prima Guide, population refers to Residential population.  However, the Neutral Tax Rate is applied to all twelve Developer Types.

  Edited August 17, 2019 by twalsh102