It's totally possible to prevent landlords from passing that tax onto renters--rent controls, income-based-rent-tier tax incentives for landlords, and so on.
"But that'll just put landlords out of busine--" no it won't. Margins have width. Commercial property ownership is an incredibly high-margin business if you want it to be. If you don't shrink your margins by expanding, you can make a shitload of money; this isn't like a goods-and-services business in which failure to grow is penalized. The cost of the services you do provide is either low (property management/leasing) or quickly amortized (purchase and development). And almost all of your business assets not only don't depreciate, but appreciate at incredible rates.
"But they'll find other ways to pass the costs on to tenan--" not if you write your regulations well. Regulation prevents all sorts of income increases in all sorts of industries whose participants have accepted that they'll stay within the lines, money to be made or not. There's no reason that a combination of increased taxes from landlords and controlled rent can't extract money from commercial property owners while shielding tenants from harms. Sure, implementing that is complex and fallible (e.g. you likely want to permit different kinds of rate flexibility for commercial renters like small businesses than for luxury apartment residents or low-income family residents), but so is everything.
"But that'll just put landlords out of busine--" no it won't. Margins have width. Commercial property ownership is an incredibly high-margin business if you want it to be. If you don't shrink your margins by expanding, you can make a shitload of money; this isn't like a goods-and-services business in which failure to grow is penalized. The cost of the services you do provide is either low (property management/leasing) or quickly amortized (purchase and development). And almost all of your business assets not only don't depreciate, but appreciate at incredible rates.
"But they'll find other ways to pass the costs on to tenan--" not if you write your regulations well. Regulation prevents all sorts of income increases in all sorts of industries whose participants have accepted that they'll stay within the lines, money to be made or not. There's no reason that a combination of increased taxes from landlords and controlled rent can't extract money from commercial property owners while shielding tenants from harms. Sure, implementing that is complex and fallible (e.g. you likely want to permit different kinds of rate flexibility for commercial renters like small businesses than for luxury apartment residents or low-income family residents), but so is everything.