I concede renters may be paying a part of it.

However if a landlord is like a business owner, and property tax is a business expense, why should they not be allowed to deduct it (just like any other business expense)?

Amazon has expenses too related to storing products in warehouses, which they can deduct. Part of that cost is priced into the product. So in theory, customers should be able to deduct a portion of every product they buy from Amazon?

Just my opinion, but society benefits from having manageable costs of living. I acknowledge that landlords have a business to run, but we also have a policy favoring ownership. Not allowing a property tax or non-occupied mortgage interest deduction raises the costs of being a landlord, disfavoring that activity a bit from a policy perspective. That, in turn, may lower housing costs (and increase owner-occupation of primary residences) by taking some landlords out of that market.

We built a broad middle class by favoring home ownership, allowing regular folks to build wealth in the form of their primary residence. I think we need to get back to that, and that does mean making policy decisions that eats into the margins of landlords.

> allowing regular folks to build wealth in the form of their primary residence

Sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes people wind up with underwater mortgages, rather than building wealth.

I don't think other business expenses should be deductible either, as that incentivizes inefficient businesses.

I would favor eliminating all business deductions, combined with lowering the tax rate enough to make the change revenue neutral.