Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 985 Taxation and Finance ([-])

Qian Hao walked into the office early in the morning.As the parent official of Xihu County, the "big granary" of the East Coast Republic of China, and concurrently serving as a member of the Standing Committee of the Nanyazihu ​​District, he is really too busy now. He has to deal with a basket of industries, finance, agriculture, military, etc. Affairs, I have to rush to work on my desk almost from morning till night.

By the way, Qian Hao was promoted from the position of the county magistrate of Ping'an County to the county magistrate of Xihu County last year (the magistrate of Ping'an County was replaced by Yang Mingyang, a retired army officer who returned from the Far East). , but in the eyes of many people, it is really hard to say what the gains and losses of this backbone official of the Shao Shude faction will be.After all, the importance of Ping'an County is second to none in the whole country. It is quite a big gap to rashly transfer from the position of county magistrate of an industrial county to the magistrate of an agricultural county.

What makes Qian Hao even more upset is that maybe the people above are too idle, and they actually found some "fun" for the local officials below them last year, which is the so-called serious supervision of the promotion and publicity of the new tax system. At the same time, it is ensured that all kinds of taxes included in the seven major tax categories can be collected in full to supplement the central and local finances.

But the problem is, in Qian Hao's view, those taxes are not so easy to collect at all!why?One thing is that there is no independent taxation department on the east coast. All tax inspectors are affiliated to the Ministry of Finance, and most of the tax collectors at the grassroots level are part-time. They have their own jobs, which raises taxes. The efficiency can be imagined; secondly, ordinary people are naturally unwilling to pay taxes, and they will do everything possible to conceal their property and income in order to evade taxes, and if they cannot escape, they will try to pay as little as possible.And if you want to find out the property and income of each household, this is an extremely huge project. The executive committee may have to set up a separate taxation department, employ thousands or even tens of thousands of people, and spend several years on it. investigation, but the cost is unbearably high, so it is not realistic at all.

We only have to look at the data on last year's taxes.Among the total taxes of 191.4 million yuan in the whole year, the two main types of taxes, movable property tax and real property tax, collected 43.2 yuan and 72.4 yuan respectively last year, accounting for [-]%.But these two types of taxes also encountered big problems in the collection process. First of all, the common people did not cooperate.Real estate tax is okay. After all, people in the whole country have about the same amount of real estate. Except for a few people, no one has one more house than others. This creates good conditions for real estate valuation and taxation—but There are still not a few people who are in arrears and do not pay.

The collection of movable property tax is very troublesome.After all, you can’t monitor the property income of each resident in an all-round way, so in the end, you can only agree on the amount of tax based on regional differences, and then let each village apportion it. This seems to be the cheapest way of taxation, and of course there are huge There is room for fraud, but this is also something that can't be helped.

The collection of property taxes in Europe at this time is all about public auction of taxation rights, and then the taxpayers themselves find a way to collect them. This process of "finding a way to collect" is naturally very discordant.Compared with this method of auctioning taxation rights, the tax amount determined by the people on the east coast after repeated discussions in various places may not be completely harmonious, but it is much more "gentle" than the rough European method. up.

Of course, no matter how gentle your tax collection method is, it is the same for the common people. Anyway, you have to take money out of their pockets, so reluctance, concealment and omissions, and slapstick and cheating are inevitable. Therefore, this final taxation The movable property tax of 43.2 yuan was actually far lower than the original expectation of the Ministry of Finance (at least a 43.2% discount).What made the Ministry of Finance collapse even more was that out of the 29 yuan, only about 14.2 yuan was actually recorded, and the remaining [-] yuan was in arrears. For various reasons (such as dissatisfaction with the quota allocated to him by the village cadres, etc.), he just refused to pay.As for when to pay, I am afraid that it will not be possible until they resolve these troubles with the village - of course, if the village takes compulsory measures, it will be collected soon.

"The collection of movable property tax and real property tax is really a long-term problem." Qian Hao put down the documents in his hand and said to himself: "Fortunately, the common people in our East Coast Republic Wealthier, the resistance to taxation has been reduced a lot. If this is placed in Europe, where the tax burden is extremely heavy, something may happen! However, we people on the east coast are really rich, and only seven types of taxes can theoretically It’s really good to levy a small tax of 200 million yuan.”

It is said that in the total tax of 191.4 million collected this time, in addition to real estate tax and chattel tax, there are also deed tax of about 0.5 yuan, business tax of 11.7 yuan, consumption tax of 19.8 yuan (this is also a very serious tax type of underpayment), personal Income tax of 21.8 yuan and tariffs of about 22 yuan—of course, in addition to this, there is also public grain paid by farmers, but because it is not tax in kind, it has not been included in the tax for the time being.

"The common people are still sensible, knowing that the previous low tax or even no tax collection was not the government's normal state and would not last long, so this time overall, the one-year 1652-1653 taxation year passed fairly smoothly. Of course, maybe this has something to do with the heavy tax burdens they were used to in the Old Continent. The overbearing monarchs created many kinds of jaw-dropping taxes, and the tax collection process is also simple and rude. Once you get to the east bank, you can’t bear it anymore. And as long as you endure it at the beginning and get used to the current taxes later, there will be no problem, and these taxes can be carried out forever.” Qian Hao lit a pipe for himself , while enjoying the thrill of the lungs being soaked in smoke, he thought: "A small tax of 200 million, according to the latest national population figure of 7 last month (July) (Ming people accounted for about 39.7%, mixed-race new generation East Coast people account for 46%), the average tax paid by one person is less than five yuan. Of course, if the number of more than 20.5 non-nationals is counted, the average tax per person is more than four yuan. Compared with Europe at this time For Britain, which has a relatively light tax burden (average 9-20 shillings per person, about 30-4 yuan), this tax is not high, not to mention that the average income of people on the east coast far exceeds that of the UK, which is not a problem It's..."

Of course, the above total tax of 191.4 million yuan is actually only theoretical, but in the actual collection process, due to various factors, only 140-150 million yuan was collected before the end of the year, and the rest of the money was basically in arrears It is quite frustrating that the movable property tax and the real property tax are owed to the large households.

"Since real estate tax is the main force of taxation, the real estate registration system should be implemented nationwide." Qian Hao thought: "It will be very difficult for the future generations to implement this matter, and I can do it [-]% It is absolutely confirmed that the Ming Dynasty at this time is absolutely unable to carry on. Europe is also a bird. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer turned out to be a big tax evader and tried every means to hide his property. How can we estimate the value of their real estate? Fortunately, Our East Coast Republic of China is a country of immigrants from the New World, a blank slate, and at this stage, except for a few people, everyone only has a house and [-] acres of land, which is easy to calculate. However, the promotion of the real estate registration system is indeed It should be sooner rather than later, the later the greater the resistance, we must take advantage of the initial stage of the national system to be settled, otherwise it will definitely be a big trouble in the future, after all, Chinese people pay attention to not revealing their wealth."

"Europeans will definitely envy us when they find out, hehe." Qian Hao took another puff of his cigarette, and then suddenly laughed: "They must not understand how a country with a population of 50 million can have such a broad tax base. , How could the total amount of taxes be so high. They almost auctioned off most of the taxes, because they knew that the government could not collect these taxes, so they could only auction off the taxation rights to local nobles, big businessmen and even the underworld. Let them figure out a way. We collected more than 140 million yuan in taxes last year, and our ability is overwhelmed. You must know that this part of the money is directly obtained from the private sector, and it can also be directly used for national construction. It is the best source of funds , don’t worry that the gold and silver obtained like gold mining cannot be directly used in the country. In this way, tax collection will really be treated as one of the most important tasks of the county government in the future.”

It is actually quite normal for Qian Hao to have this kind of thinking, because anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is a good thing for both the local finance and the central finance.In particular, Qian Hao also vaguely heard from friends in the capital that the central government is now discussing handing over some difficult-to-collect taxes to the local governments, that is, the local governments are responsible for collecting these taxes, and the money received is included in the local finances. The place should be very attractive.

Thinking of this, Qian Hao rang the bell to call his secretary, and said to him: "Tomorrow, I will hold a meeting of various departments. The head of the department must be present, and those who cannot make it will have to ask for leave. This meeting is very important. We will focus on the next stage of work, among which the promotion and popularization of the new tax system is the top priority. This year's tax payment amount in this county is not very satisfactory, which has something to do with everyone's laziness and lack of attention, so I would like to give Let everyone sound the alarm and let them know what the consequences will be if they fail to pay the tax quota. In addition, in line with the spirit of the central policy, the real estate registration system must be implemented throughout the county. It’s not that when you talk about these things, you have to ask someone to notify each department in the afternoon, so that they must be present tomorrow. In addition, the chief officials of the townships and natural villages have to be notified gradually the day after tomorrow. Recently, I want to hold an enlarged meeting to inform everyone Special emphasis on the importance of taxation."

(End of this chapter)