It's always been like that and I think it's fair. It goes like someone interested in a prop owned by someone, admins check when you were last active and if it's a really long time ago, they reset the prop. Imagine walking in wanting to buy a really hot prop like ammunation, but not being able to because the guy who owns it was last active 2 years ago. Makes sense to me.
The tax part is bad though, I remember it used to be that only the cash you got on yourself could get taxed, the one stored in bank was safe. I liked it that way.