Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2013 Financial Accounting ([-])

Accompanied by the village chief, Li Ergou finally went to the homes of those villagers who refused to pay taxes.

It was at this time that he finally experienced the difficulty of these guys.Grandma is a bear, these tax debtors are either talking in a weird way, mocking the tax police like Li Ergou who only dare to stay at home and play tricks, saying that when they went to battle to kill the enemy for the benefit of the country, Li Ergou and others didn't know where to play Mud; either he speaks very aggressively, blows his beard and stares at every turn, and even goes to the kitchen to threaten him with a kitchen knife; or he simply closes the door and refuses to open the door even though Village Chief Wang yells his throat outside, which makes people so angry.

It took Village Chief Wang and Li Ergou three days to visit all the seven production teams in the village. The result was threats and persuasion. In the end, they only got back a hundred yuan in taxes, which is really unacceptable. .Li Ergou wanted to seize some of their property, such as cattle, sheep, horses and mules, but he was afraid of causing bloodshed (this time he didn't bring any armor, knives or guns), so he finally refrained from it and planned to return to the tax police. After discussing with several seniors in the room.

Before he told Village Chief Wang that the medical team in the township was going to be stopped, it was just false threats. In fact, they don't have this right now, and the county doesn't advocate this kind of "sanction" that knocks everyone down.To deal with these lads, basically we can only start with the military association in the village. Now the higher-ups are attaching great importance to the work of clearing tax arrears. I believe that the military association in the village is not a lawless organization. right.The country has actually given veterans great preferential measures and reduced taxes for many years, but if you regard this tax relief policy as a lifetime thing, it would be a bit too much.Undoubtedly, this time the county tax bureau will join forces with the military associations in the townships to act together. If it still doesn’t work, I’m sorry, the tax police from all over the country will probably gather together, and then hold a big battle to clean up tax arrears. Take these tough bones one by one, and see if they are still tough.

Of course, for those ordinary taxpayers with no background, it is not so troublesome.The tax police have long been familiar with handling these matters. They go directly to the court to sue, and then arrest people with the note.You know, their tax police have the power to enforce the law. More than a dozen tax police came riding tall horses, armed with knives, guns, swords and halberds. How many of them dare to bear it?

It is the duty of the citizens to pay taxes in accordance with the law.You don't pay taxes and I don't pay taxes, what the hell shall we eat and drink?Hmm, there seems to be something wrong with that.Well, changing to not paying taxes will seriously disrupt the national order, weaken government functions, and then affect the country's development strategy. Do you deserve this big hat?

Li Ergou finally returned to the tax police room in the government compound of Cuiwu Township on the evening of February 2, and then reported the information to the director.The next day, the director wrote a report and handed it to the postman to the county tax bureau. The next step is to go through the process. They don't have too much to do, just wait for the news.

And while Li Ergou and others were busy with clearing the tax arrears, on March 1688, 3, in the Taxation Department of the Eastern China Republic located in Qingdao Port, Huang Hanhua, the deputy minister who actually presided over the work, was working with his confidant. His subordinate, Kong Dahui, deputy director of the Policy and Regulations Department of the Ministry of Taxation, was discussing.

"Old Kong, seeing that the country's expenses have been increasing year after year, and now that the central government's financial resources have been reduced after the reform of the tax sharing system, how do you think this year's budget will be spent?" Huang Hanhua snuffed out the cigarette butt in his hand, got up and walked to the window, looking at the The quiet blue bay outside the window, but I can't calm down inside.

The reform of the tax sharing system at the central level has been implemented for several years.The current trend is that the local financial strength has been greatly strengthened, so they have relatively sufficient funds to popularize education and sanitation, and at the same time construct various buildings, roads, railways, canal piers, and flood control and conservancy facilities. .In addition, they also have a strong impulse to invest in small local state-owned enterprises, such as small brick kilns, small cement factories, small lime factories, small food factories, hotels, small machinery factories, small textile factories, etc. Once you have money, you spend it vigorously, not to mention your lofty ambitions.

Take Qingdao County, where the tax department is now located, as an example. Last year, the county expanded its wharf and ship repair yard. At the same time, it also paid a large amount of resettlement fees to attract the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard to relocate here (Dongfang County is not used to this large shipyard anymore. further development of shipbuilding enterprises), not to mention that they recruit professionals in finance, foreign languages, trade, logistics and other fields from all over the world to come to work. The degree of wealth.

But before the reform of the tax-sharing system, Qingdao County had to hand over a large amount of taxes to the central government, and the government affairs council would arrange the expenditure in a unified manner. With limited living money, he could only do some repair work, even building the urban light rail system. The funds for the branch lines have to be launched in the form of issuing local bonds, and the comparison between the two is nothing more than a world.

The reason why the central government makes such an arrangement is mainly due to the fact that with the continuous expansion of the territory, population and economic scale, the central government no longer has the kind of meticulous and comprehensive management and control capabilities. It seems that it can improve the efficiency of capital utilization, eliminate waste, and build a good place.

Of course, this model is not without drawbacks.In fact, those who opposed him accused this model of weakening the financial power of the central government, making it impossible for them to balance development among regions through transfer payments.Think about it, when more than [-]% of the country's fiscal revenue is taken away by local governments, rich localities will naturally have a lot of funds to build and consolidate their advantages, while poor localities can only stare blankly and build some third-class national roads of a local nature. , Second-class national highways still need to seek bank loans, is it hard or hard?

Like the cadres of the counties on the Brazilian plateau, they often complain that the local government is poor (the income from land sales in some areas even accounts for the bulk of the finances), and the central investment is tight on the Pampa Plain and the inter-river area. Is this true? Abandon them and let their millions of people fend for themselves?If this is the case, then what is the point of the immigration policy that the country has persistently implemented over the years?Could it be that the Pampa Plain is a frontier, but the Brazilian plateau is not a frontier?The gentlemen of the Government Administration Council may wish to look at the map. Back then, a large area of ​​the Brazilian plateau was cut off from the Portuguese in one breath. As a result, its development level is still very poor. Is this what it should be?

It's a pity that their voices were directly ignored by the upper echelons, or they were not really taken seriously.Liao Xiaoyao's government paid much attention to the development of Pampa back then, but now Ma Wenqiang's government has changed. While continuing to invest in the Pampa Plain, it also plans to open up the Hexi land of the Chaco Plain. This makes them mad, but there is nothing they can do.

"Nowadays the export of grain and cloth is encouraged. Although there is a concern about tax rebates, the national treasury should be filled day by day. Why do the proprietors worry about this?" Kong Dahui, the man with glasses, was puzzled, "But there has been a change in military expenditure?"

"That's right!" Huang Hanhua patted the window bitterly, and said annoyedly: "The Central Executive Committee has decided to re-organize the three departments of the National Defense Army, the National Defense Army, and the National Loyalty Army. People, as well as weapons, equipment, food, medicine and other materials, are all spent by the treasury. At the same time, the first and second fleets are put on combat readiness, especially the most powerful first fleet, most of which leave Hong Kong and go northward. Waiting for changes. As a result, military expenditures have surged, and treasury funds are quite insufficient. In addition, the Army is now clamoring to increase the establishment of four mixed battalions. It’s simply impossible to do it, and even our taxation department has to suffer, and we have to work hard to clear up the debts, which is a job that offends people, alas, it’s really difficult.”

Kong Dahui also frowned when he heard this, and he sighed after a long time, saying: "The tax system reform has been going on for several years now, and no matter how hard it is to reverse it, the central government has no way of asking whether it is legal or not to withhold taxes and spend excessively. Another soldier rose up and proposed an increase in expenditure, and the national annual expenditure was biased towards one side (it is inevitable that military expenditure will exceed [-]% of the central government's fiscal revenue this year), this is really..."

"Proprietor, can't we stop the military expansion and prepare for war?" Kong Dahui asked again.

"I'm afraid I can't!" Huang Hanhua shook his head and said helplessly: "The situation in Europe is delicate now. Not only are Ottomans and Russia fighting fiercely in the Balkans and the Black Sea, but at the same time the Kingdom of France is ready to annex its surrounding areas, especially if it threatens Northern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, where our country's interests are quite important, have to be guarded. In addition, the members of the executive committee are most worried about England and the United Provinces in the North Sea. The merger of the two countries, and Prince William III of Orange serving as the heads of state of the two countries at the same time, is very detrimental to the market sales on the east coast, and countermeasures must be taken. Of course, these will cost money."

"The European countries are no different from pigs!" Kong Dahui was also a little annoyed, and he only heard him say: "In the past 20 years, there have been many disasters and chaos, and there is hardly any peace. Seven or eight out of ten of the country's income are consumed by military expenditures, which are used for construction projects. There is little to say. Osman feared the big country, and emptied the national treasury under the militarism, and after the war broke out, ordinary income was not enough to help the country. The only way to pay for it was to borrow money from me. In Kong’s view, Osman had to borrow money , It is stamped that it does not rely on it for wartime use, that is, post-war compensation and important preparations, and it also needs to borrow money. Our country wants to occupy its market and contain Russia and Austria's strategy, I am afraid that it will be involved in expenditure. East Lord, the 1687-1688 fiscal year is not easy to pass, and the tax department is under a lot of pressure."

"Okay, don't call me the proprietor. Old Kong, you are still a national cadre anyway, and you talk to each proprietor as if you are my personal staff. Now it is not the meeting in Guangzhou. Be careful in the future." Huang Hanhua walked up In front of the wine cabinet, he poured himself a glass of wine, and said distressedly: "Now the matter is very clear. The country has a lot of places to spend money, so I put the idea on our tax department. The action of arrears must be implemented, and it must be implemented ruthlessly. At least 500 million yuan in tax arrears must be collected. This is a bottom line given to me by the Government Administration Council. They said that 500 million is not too little , 1000 million is not too much. In short, we need to see the money, otherwise our tax department will be assessed one by one, and the matter of building a second tax police camp will be 100% obsolete. Lao Kong, the situation is like this The situation, I was also forced to this point, there is no other way. Oh, of course, I came to you today, not only to tell you about this matter, but mainly to ask you to study, in our existing fiscal and taxation system Next, is there any way or room for adding new taxes to expand fiscal revenue? Don’t feel pressured, just speak freely, there are no outsiders here anyway.”

In other words, it has been almost eight years since the last tax reform.The east coast government, which has tasted the sweetness of tax hikes, is now focusing on this aspect. In fact, it is a very natural thing. What government can't make money?It can be said that they are all self-taught, and the lighthouse of civilization on the East Bank is no exception.

The finances of the Eastern Republic of China have always been divided into two parts: tax revenue and non-tax revenue.The former is easy to understand, that is, taxes, while the latter is more complicated, but generally it mainly includes profits turned over by state-owned enterprises, income from public property such as land, forests and rivers (land rent, transfer fees, etc.), confiscation of fines, etc.Taking the 1686-1687 fiscal year as an example, the total non-tax revenue totaled about 1240 million yuan, which may seem like a lot, but compared with the tax revenue, the growth rate is actually not satisfactory.The main reason is that state-owned enterprises are facing increasingly strong challenges from the private economy, and profit margins have begun to decline slowly. Some small state-owned enterprises in non-regulated industries (that is, industries with low capital and technology thresholds and full competition) have even ceased to operate. How to make money.Even some state-owned enterprises that are still very profitable have to reduce dividends to major shareholders (that is, the central government) and keep more funds in the enterprise, or improve technology, or purchase machines, or train personnel, or build marketing channels In short, they don't have much energy to support the central government in order to survive better. After all, it is not decades ago, and it is not the era when they can lay down a lot of money-of course, for Nanhai Group and Tieling Heavy Industry Consortium However, it is undeniable that the overall profitability of this group of state-owned enterprises is indeed declining year by year. This is still the case even when the overseas market has expanded. This is an objective fact and does not depend on anyone's will.

In this case, it is understandable that the growth of the major item of non-tax revenue of the national finance is slow.If this item wants to increase significantly, in addition to the restoration of profitability of the state-owned enterprise group, I am afraid that the only way to increase the land sales index is to rely on land finance to continue life.But the problem is that now the agricultural development has entered a bottleneck period, the grain planting industry is in a slight depression, and the income gap between industry and agriculture has begun to widen. Under such a situation, how can the people actively participate in the immigration movement? And vigorously buy land to open up wasteland?Huang Hanhua feels that, except for the newly arrived immigrants and non-nationals who have become regulars, the enthusiasm of native-born citizens in this area should be declining year by year, unless the government formulates policies now and strives to solve the phenomenon of inversion of industrial and agricultural income. How difficult it is.

After all, this is an act that violates the laws of the market economy and is a choice made by the government to forcibly intervene in the market. No one can guarantee what will happen in the future.

Neither this nor that!Then, if the fiscal revenue of the East Coast Republic of China wants to achieve another wave of rapid growth, the only way is to increase taxes. I have to say that this is a great irony and an embarrassing reality.Huang Hanhua is the deputy director of the taxation department. He is well aware of the current income and expenditure situation of individuals and enterprises in the East Coast. He understands that the tax increase will definitely cause a certain degree of rebound, especially for those business owners. Who is standing behind them? Play with your own villain at home!This kind of job of offending people actually fell on my head, what a bad luck!

(End of this chapter)