Daming 1805

Chapter 464 Is the bride price taxable?

In Zhu Jingyuan's view, the Ministry of Ordnance and the Ministry of Industry will be busy in the next few years, so there is no need to add burdens to them for the time being.

The craftsmen led by Zhu Jingyuan and Li Rui lived in the test site for another day, and went through all the existing engineering projects.

Speak out all the ideas that may be useful, let them write them down, and go back and try to see if they work.

As Daming's research on the frontiers of science and technology became more and more in-depth, Zhu Jingyuan could directly provide fewer and fewer references.

When the airplane was invented, Zhu Jingyuan was able to directly provide design ideas and even draw general drawings.

Most projects now can only provide direction and reference suggestions.

But direction and advice still matter...

The mainstream scientific and technological research direction of Ming Dynasty will not make major mistakes in the next few decades, which can accept a lot of resources.

Two days later, Zhu Jingyuan sent away the craftsmen of the ordnance department headed by Li Rui, and returned to the Forbidden City by himself.

After a short rest for a day, Zhu Jingyuan resumed his original work.

In the past two days, the secretaries arranged by Zhu Jingyuan began to come back one after another.

However, the people who came back first were not the local investigators from the nearest Yingtian Mansion, but the people in charge of the Suzhou Mansion.

Zheng Xingyang, who was born in a collateral family of the Yanping county government, now found Zhu Jingyuan in a little haste.

First hand in a self-written report, and at the same time briefly explain:
"Your Highness, the investigation of the students in Suzhou has not yet been fully completed.

"However, the investigations in recent days have yielded important results, and I feel that it is necessary to report to you as soon as possible.

"Recently, there was a wedding in Suzhou that everyone knew about.

"The woman's parent's name is Liu Yudong, a native of Suzhou, and the family has a civil aircraft engine factory.

"The man's parent's name is Wang Baoqing, a native of Songjiang Prefecture, and his family has a small civilian flying machine factory.

"These two families are very famous in the local area.

"There are members of the family who work in the local yamen, and there are also members of the clan who are officials in the imperial court, and the highest official ranks are all four-rank magistrates.

"The two factories and commercial firms can also be ranked among the similar manufacturers in the two places, and they are both new factories in industries that have emerged in the past ten years, and they can indeed be regarded as well-matched.

"But precisely because the two industries are already quite competitive in their respective industries, the competitiveness of both parties will be further enhanced after the two are combined.

"The officials in the two families will definitely assist each other in the future. If the two complementary factories are put together, their industrial scale will reach a certain level.

"At the same time, the local people also told the students that Wang Baoqing offered a dowry gift of [-] gold notes, and if nothing else happened, Liu Yudong might also offer a dowry of similar value...

"Moreover, according to the investigations of the past few days, similar situations have been common in the local area.

"Students think that the imperial court should come forward and make some necessary adjustments."

Zhu Jingyuan flipped through Zheng Xingyang's report with a serious expression on his face.

This matter is the marriage of two local families.

They are not really famous families for the time being. After all, neither of them has a title. The highest members of the family are fourth-rank officials, and they are all local magistrates.

The family's industries are still related to the aviation industry, which means that they have a history of no more than ten years at most.

They are all a new generation of businessmen who have seized opportunities in the new round of industrial revolution.

In the past few years, there should be many similar businessmen all over Daming.

Perhaps in the eyes of traditional nobles, traditional bureaucratic families, traditional businessmen and landlords, these people can only be regarded as nouveau riche.

However, they must already have considerable "strength" in the local private capital.

The local clan plus family officials, as well as local government officials, have also grabbed the attention of the aviation industry.

Especially the dowry and dowry of [-] gold bills gave Zhu Jingyuan a different taste.

A ten thousand gold note is equivalent to 5000 million RMB in his previous life.

5000 million bride price, what kind of concept is this?
The largest share of dowry gifts circulated on the Internet in the previous life seemed to be around 2000 million.

Although I don't know what kind of betrothal gifts I have never seen in my previous life, but the [-] gold bills used as betrothal gifts in this world has reached a terrifying level.

As the Prince of Ming Dynasty himself, Zhu Jingyuan's annual salary is only two thousand gold bills.

At the beginning, my grandfather, the then emperor of Ming Dynasty Zhu Zhongliang, supported me to participate in the investment in the aviation industry, but only gave him [-] gold notes.

The [-] gold bills made his father, the prince, happy, which was equivalent to his five-year salary at that time.

At the same time, according to the regulations of the Ming Zong's Mansion, the betrothal gift for the Prince of Ming to marry his wife and concubine is only 100 taels of gold ingots, which is just one hundred gold bills.

It is only equivalent to 50 yuan in later generations. This is the royal prince of the world's great empire.

This is also the result of Emperor Shizu doubling the dowry in the later period.

Before the Chongzhen Dynasty, the prince's "statutory" dowry was only 50 taels of gold, equivalent to 25 in later generations.

Of course, the process of Prince Daming marrying a wife is quite cumbersome, and gold ingots are only part of the dowry.

Adding up other gifts directly to the woman's family, the value of the dowry will usually not be doubled.

This is also the rule left by Emperor Shizu.

This is only the amount of dowry from the imperial court, and the money that the prince himself can come up with is basically much more than this.

But the tradition of the feudal dynasty is to talk about etiquette, and money cannot be overridden.

At the same time, for the two families in this report to get married, the bride price is definitely not just cash.

Other items may be worth more.

The prince married a wife with [-] gold bills, but this civil wedding directly took out [-] gold bills?
A hundred times the prince's dowry?
Zhu Jingyuan quickly finished the report in hand, and then directly asked Zheng Xingyang:
"Do you think they are laundering money? Or completing a transaction through bride price and dowry to evade taxes?"

Zheng Xingyang immediately nodded and said:

"Students are not completely sure, because there is no direct evidence yet, so they can only say that the possibility is very high.

"Students suggested to arrange personnel to follow up and investigate immediately. Local people said that similar situations are very common..."

Zhu Jingyuan put down Zheng Xingyang's report, and turned to look at Lin Zexu beside him:

"Mr. Lin, I'm personally not sure. In our Daming's civil law, is there any regulation that the dowry gift for marrying a wife should be taxed or not?"

Lin Zexu was also a little confused by this question:

"This...students have the impression that there are no special regulations related to dowry.

"In actual law enforcement, no one collects taxes on bride price and dowry.

"According to the laws related to gifts and inheritance, the property directly donated by parents to their children is not taxed.

"Under normal circumstances, the bride price and dowry end up going to the newlyweds.

"It is equivalent to the parents of both parties who got married, and each contributed a sum of money and assets for the use of their children's families.

"This provides the most basic basic conditions for the future life of the newlyweds.

"If it is strictly implemented in accordance with the law, there are obviously obvious loopholes in it.

"The dowry is actually handed over by the man's family to the woman's family before marriage, and the children of both parties were not married at that time.

"Gifts between two people who are not directly related are theoretically taxable.

"It's just that in the past, there were very few huge bride price and dowry.

"Traditional officials and tax collectors also instinctively believe that they should not collect taxes on other people's weddings...

"So there should be no actual implementation.

"Nowadays, industry and commerce are developing rapidly, and private capital is expanding rapidly.

"Coupled with the rapid expansion of the business community, various traditional rules are constantly being broken.

"It cannot be ruled out that there will be emerging businessmen deliberately taking advantage of traditional practices.

"The use of dowry and dowry to launder money or evade taxes must also be prevented..."

Zhu Jingyuan frowned and thought.

This is a typical rapid development of society, and new situations constantly appear in the daily life of society.

The old tradition began to be impacted by the new situation.

Zhu Jingyuan couldn't make up his mind for a while, what role the court should play in this process.

When Zhu Jingyuan was thinking, Zheng Xingyang, who was beside him, listened to Lin Zexu's explanation, and added:
"Actually, according to the survey of the students, the local tax officials in Suzhou actually considered collecting the bride price and dowry tax in the past.

"However, before it was officially implemented, it was met with collective resistance from the local people.

"Including merchants, nobles, and many officials, as long as they are famous people, they don't want the court to collect this tax.

"After all, everyone's children are going to get married, and if the bride price is taxed, then sooner or later I have to pay the tax.

"At the same time, the locals also adjusted the method of delivery of bride price and dowry.

"They started to let the newlyweds register their marriage first, and then send the bride price to the wedding venue on the day of the wedding.

"After the wedding, other belongings are directly kept by the newlyweds, and the cash is sent directly to the bank for deposit.

"Parents don't need to pay taxes on the property that parents give to their sons and daughters-in-law.

"This avoids the loophole caused by the gift of assets between families that are not legally related before marriage.

“The idea of ​​a bride price tax by local tax officials has also died down.”

Lin Zexu was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously said:
"Then there is another question, if the families of the newlyweds are big businessmen, will they still work in their own family's business after marriage?
"Is it true that the large amounts of cash and property in their bride price and dowry are all used for the life of the newlyweds?
"If the newlyweds did not use huge amounts of cash for family life, nor did they invest in new factories and commercial firms in their own names, where did the money end up?
"If these money and assets are still used in the original business of the two married families, then they are evading taxes or even laundering money..."

Listening to Lin Zexu's analysis, Zheng Xingyang felt a sudden realization:

"Although it cannot be ruled out that the two married families are indeed wealthy, and indeed both took a lot of money for the newlyweds to use for living and investment, but the possibility of tax evasion through this process is too high.

"It's just that...most businessmen have only a few direct children, and there will never be such an opportunity in many years. This may be the reason why the relevant officials did not get serious about the dowry in the end..."

The memories of later generations in Zhu Jingyuan's mind helped him to come up with more "advanced" ideas:

"Then have you ever heard that local businessmen transfer assets through marriage?
"Are there any merchants who themselves or their children have repeatedly married and divorced?"

Zheng Xingyang was stunned again:
"It seems...it seems that there are indeed..."

Then he said angrily:
"I just heard it mentioned in the local people's chat. The people who said it at the time and myself just instinctively felt that there was something wrong with the character of these nouveau riche businessmen...

"Now that Your Highness and Mr. Lin have reminded me like this, I only now realize that they may be evading taxes through marriage!

"So Your Highness, let's start a strict investigation!

"No matter how clean they are on the tax issue, a charge of trespass cannot be escaped anyway."

Zhu Jing stroked her inch-long beard:
"Assuming this charge, it is better not to use it now.

"It really needs to be stricter. Now the rich businessmen in the whole country basically have to be convicted...

"The current industry and commerce are developing too fast, and Daming is much richer than it was more than 100 years ago.

"The high specifications hundreds of years ago can only be regarded as ordinary now.

"Let's just talk about houses. The specifications of the main hall in the Forbidden City are really not worth mentioning at the current level of construction.

"Using the charge of usurpation now will cause a lot of panic among the people, and it is easy to scare the snake away.

"It is still necessary to find a way to collect enough evidence and use the usual laws of course to punish the crime.

"The wedding of the Wang and Liu families has passed? Or is it being prepared?"

Zheng Xingyang immediately continued to introduce what he knew:

"The final preparations are being made, and the wedding date is currently set on the [-]th.

"Whether or not they evade taxes through marriage, but as newly rich families, both of them are really rich.

"The ones who are getting married are the legitimate children of both families. The wedding will definitely be very luxurious, and it will take a long time to prepare."

Zhu Jingyuan nodded:
"Now that the film industry has developed quite well, have these folk rich families ever considered hiring professionals to shoot a film and record it when they have important events?"

Zheng Xingyang thought about it:
"I haven't heard of it so far. The current movies are mainly used in official education and the publicity of important events in the court, and there are very few private applications..."

Zhu Jingyuan shook his head lightly:
"It's not enough. It's impossible to spread it quickly for purely official use, and it still needs to go to the private sector.

"Mr. Lin, go arrange it and contact the film company of the royal consortium.

"They borrowed people to set up a non-governmental film company among the people to promote the business of film recording major events.

"I think this kind of nouveau riche family should not refuse to record the marriage process.

"Completely record their marriage process, including sound and picture.

"Their dowry and dowry, with such a large amount, this kind of nouveau riche family definitely wants to show off.

"Ask on purpose and let them talk about how much money they have in total and what they will use it for.

"The process of transferring these money to deposits is all recorded.

"At the same time, go to the bank's people to track the follow-up funds movement of their deposit account.

"By the way, at the same time, the people in the bank must be supervised.

"I think that since they put the money in the bank, the staff of the bank should be clear about whether there is any unreasonable transfer.

"But the banks did not give warnings and advice to the tax authorities.

"Either the money is really just for the newlyweds to start their families.

"Either the people at the bank have gotten used to it.

"Or it's dereliction of duty..."

(End of this chapter)