Vehicle and Vessel Taxes and Money Orders in the Han Dynasty
Vehicle and vessel tax: a tax levied on owners of vehicles and vessels. This tax began during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. In the winter of the sixth year of Emperor Yuanguang (129 BC), the "Initial Accounting of Commercial Vehicles" was imposed. The tax was levied on merchants and ex-officials.
San Lao, the owner of other chariots and ships other than the knights in the north. Every merchant's chariot (a light chariot driven by a horse) is counted as two. If other people have chariots, each chariot is counted as one. If it belongs to an official,
The cars owned by the three elders and knights from the north are not taxed. Boats over five feet tall are taxed.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's Minqian Order first targeted the merchants and handicraft owners at that time, taxing all their money and goods. Later, as the situation developed, the scope of taxation was expanded. The property of ordinary wealthy families and middle-class families,
Including money-laden commercial goods, cars, boats, fields and houses, livestock, and slaves, etc., are all within the scope of taxation and need to be assessed one by one and collected for tax collection. This approach must be resisted by wealthy businessmen; or it may be over-reported.
If there is a small amount, they may hide it and not report it, and they are unwilling to share the wealth to meet the needs of the country. In fact, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had already estimated this problem, and when he promulgated the tax law, there were already provisions for penalties. Therefore, when the rich and powerful businessmen rushed to hide their wealth, the Han Dynasty
Emperor Wu issued a complaint order in the sixth year of Yuanshou (117 BC), and appointed Yang Ke to take charge of the complaint work, encouraging everyone to expose those who reported tax evasion. In the third year of Yuanding (114 BC), rewards were also issued.
Those who complained were rewarded with half of the wealth found. As a result, "Yang Guo was found all over the world." Most of the people above the middle level were accused, and the country gained a large amount of property. Hundreds of millions of property were confiscated, and more than a thousand slaves were fined.
Ten thousand hectares of land was confiscated as public land, hundreds of hectares in large counties and more than a hundred hectares in small counties, and houses were also confiscated accordingly. However, suing and suing also has its negative side, because most merchants with middle-income and above were punished.
It went bankrupt, causing more business people to pay more attention to food and drink, and fewer people engaged in accumulation; at the same time, fewer people were engaged in vehicle and ship transportation and trade, resulting in tight supply of goods and rising prices. In short, it brought adverse effects to the development of the national economy.
The impact will inevitably affect the growth of national income in the long run.