There is even a problem that the taxes collected cannot offset the cost of taxation, so that some places have simply canceled the collection of commercial taxes and made up for it with floating taxes from land taxes. Although the commercial taxes in Guangzhou have not been abolished, they are still half dead. They have been replaced.
It's local business tax.
After the Japanese pirates were pacified, the Chief Secretaries of Fujian and Vietnam established separate taxation bureaus that were independent of the original commercial tax system of the Ministry of Household, and set up tax cards at Qiaotou and Dukou. The tax rates were set by the local government, and the revenue was used to pay for military pay and local defense.
This money cannot be handed over to the Ministry of Household Affairs, so local yamen are keen on collecting it. However, even if they are keen on collecting it, the amount of money collected is insignificant in Ai Zhixin's view, and cannot be compared with the status of a big city with prosperous commerce like Guangzhou. Especially since he
When I saw that the commercial tax revenue of a town under the Guangzhou Prefecture was only 170 taels, I knew that there was something incredibly serious going on inside. This was because the "reasonable burden" paid by that town to the Senate every year was 450 taels of silver.
However, Ai Zhixin is not prepared to use this as a breakthrough to increase tax revenue. Commercial tax is actually lijin. Although it is easy to collect and the tax amount is not small, it affects the circulation of goods. His eyes are on door stall tax and real estate deed tax.
And wine and vinegar tax.
The stall tax is a commercial tax levied by the local government on permanent shops in the town. Because ancient society did not have a perfect accounting system, the government did not count the shop's sales and profits when collecting taxes. It was basically a fixed amount.
Tax. As for whether it should be set high or low, it all depends on luck. Some industries are extremely profitable - such as pawnshops, which only pay a mere 45 taels in tax a year, while small shops on the street have to pay how much tax they pay in a year.
A tax of two denarii.
The stall tax in Guangzhou is collected by the guilds of various trades. For shops that have not formed a guild, the government appoints tooth merchants to pay it on their behalf. It’s easy to see how big the tricks are.
Ai Zhixin looked at the total revenue from stall taxes in one prefecture and two counties in Guangzhou, and found that the revenue was about more than 10,000 taels per year - this number is quite good, but it is still far less than what he expected.
Real estate deed tax is levied at 3% of the selling price or deed price. However, this tax has not been levied in many places for many years, and the states and counties under the jurisdiction of Qiongzhou Prefecture do not even have collection records. Ai Zhixin discovered that not only has Guangzhou Prefecture been
The deed tax revenue is very high. In Nanhai and Panyu counties alone, the annual deed tax revenue is as much as 2,000 taels. This is probably because the business in big cities is booming, real estate prices are higher, and transactions are more frequent.
.
As for the wine and vinegar tax, this was a tax that was continued from the Song Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty. The wine and vinegar monopoly was a major revenue source for the government in the Song Dynasty. However, the management level of industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty was extremely low and could not effectively control the production and circulation of wine and vinegar.
So this tax is basically in name only.
"The tax burden in Ming Dynasty is not too heavy, but too light." Ai Zhixin said at the Wudaokou New District Financial Work Conference, "The potential is far from being explored, and they are still boasting about the GDP of Ming Dynasty. When it comes to the efficiency of fiscal exploitation,
The Ming Dynasty is already a backward country by standard, not to mention compared with European countries, even Japan is inferior in East Asia."
In Ai Zhixin's view, the Ming government's tax collection efficiency is generally low. There are huge losses in the collection process, and there are serious leaks, leaks, and leaks. It is said that a large number of tax collections use unpaid "zaoli" to do the work, but in reality
The hidden personnel costs are staggeringly high.
It is not easy to build your own tax team, especially when this tax team must maintain efficiency while generally ensuring "integrity" - even in the 21st century, there are institutional guarantees, countless regulations and internal control and inspection methods.
In modern tax authorities, there are still people who come from poor backgrounds but drive BMWs and live in villas.
It is basically impossible to use the current education and administrative system of the Senate to form a team that Ai Zhixin can tolerate. Furthermore, there are many problems with direct taxation: first, it consumes manpower. In the past, agricultural taxes did not
Before its abolition, the administrative personnel costs consumed by levying agricultural taxes often offset the tax revenue; secondly, it is easy to intensify social conflicts, because taxation causes conflicts and even riots. There are many examples at home and abroad in ancient and modern times. Finally, modern taxation is based on modern finance.
In terms of system, the industrial and commercial households in the Ming Dynasty still used the four-pillar settlement method, and smaller stores even only had running accounts.
To implement the new tax law, the accounting system must be changed, businessmen must be accustomed to not paying cash overnight, and forcing them to use bank notes for transactions instead of using cash directly... This will not happen overnight. But tax collection is urgent.
If a simple method is adopted, it is that they have implemented "reasonable burden" in the past. That is, the Senate proposes the total "burden", and then the taxpayers hold a meeting to discuss and each self-report their share. This method of collection has the least resistance. Now Guangzhou
The Federation of Industry and Commerce has already been established, and it is easy to achieve results by adopting this method. However, Ai Zhixin believes that this is a cheap measure adopted in the past when they lacked a political organization.
If such an approach is adopted, then the various tax rates set by the tax authorities will be meaningless, because either the tax amount collected is lower than the tax rate and the benefits are directly transferred to industrial and commercial households; or the tax rate is higher, and then the tax rate becomes "
Apportionment" has increased the burden on taxpayers.
The biggest problem is that once such an approach is adopted, it will inevitably go through the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various industry associations, which is tantamount to allowing these institutions to exercise tax power, which can easily lead to unfair tax sharing and legal tax evasion.
Ai Zhixin believes that although Guangzhou's shops do not have a modern accounting system, most shops adopt the four-pillar accounting method, and their business conditions have account books. Moreover, in the Ming Dynasty, whether official or private, accounting was basically based on this set of accounting methods.
There are many people who know how to do this, and you can find many ready-made "bookkeepers" for temporary use.
Taking advantage of these characteristics, he decided to adopt the model of "self-reporting and actual payment, light taxes and heavy penalties" to collect taxes. The industrial and commercial households will file the taxes themselves, and the tax department will randomly check the operating income and profits of each store on a regular basis...
Ai Zhixin was looking through the information when several soldiers came in carrying dozens of hard-cover notebooks. A clerk reported: "Chief, this is the "Compilation of Information on Guangzhou Industrial and Commercial Households" that Chief Lin asked me to hand over to you - please
You sign for it."
These brochures were compiled by the city government based on the lists reported by the Federation of Industry and Commerce and materials collected by the Ministry of Urban Affairs - all "permanent shops with fixed storefronts" are listed in them, ranging from large merchants like Zhang Zhou to those in the streets and alleys.
There are all kinds of grocery stores. The address, business scope, business status, shopkeeper's name and employment status of the store are listed in quite detail. In addition to the previous information accumulated by the Ministry of Urban Work, all these information were collected by going to the city.
A series of administrative tasks since then: checking household registration, nailing door plates, industrial and commercial registration... Without these early tasks, Ai Zhixin probably wouldn't have been able to do anything new besides relying on the Federation of Industry and Commerce to allocate "reasonable burdens."
Ai Zhixin has already made a basic plan in his wallet. Generally speaking, he plans to levy three major categories: property tax, circulation tax and stamp tax.
The first column is property tax, which is levied on agricultural land property, commercial land property, large homestead property, as well as merchant ships, industrial and mining and other related properties. In terms of specific tax types, he plans to levy: real estate tax, urban land use tax, vehicle and vessel license tax
, vehicle and vessel purchase tax, deed tax, inheritance tax and slave tax.
The second is circulation tax. The reason for taxation is to maintain the order of the commodity market. Business tax does not distinguish specific details. Generally speaking, as long as business activities occur and business income is obtained, all business income is included in the scope of taxation - naturally there is a certain exemption limit.
and scope. The most important one is to collect from the circulation link of the newly established wholesale market in Guangzhou.
The third is stamp duty, land deed replacement, and contract transactions that require the legal recognition and protection of the Senate. Tax objects, ship sailing license trade, land deed certificates, house deed certificates, business licenses, equity certificates, and various certificates require the Senate
maintenance of authority.
Finally, there is the local administrative surcharge, which is levied on the circulation tax. Ai Zhixin and Liu Xiang discussed and decided to levy urban cleaning fees, local security fees, urban construction fees and education fees. These four taxes are levied by the Guangzhou local government
Used by the government. All other taxes are national taxes, and some will be refunded based on the actual situation after collection.
Since he is not responsible for customs duties, parking tax and tonnage tax, he has not made any plans for the time being. As for the salt and tobacco monopoly, he has no special ideas for the time being, because according to the monopoly practices of the old time and space, it is necessary
With a whole team, he can't even improve the tax authorities now, and of course he can't talk about establishing a monopoly system. So he still adopts the method he used in Lingao: paying taxes all at once at the source of wholesale, and then distributing it through distributors.
.As for the monopoly on tobacco leaves and salt farms, this matter is very complicated, and the resources that need to be used are beyond the control of the Finance and Taxation Director.
Ai Zhixin read a few pages of the brochure and had a basic idea. At this time, the city government sent a correspondent: Mayor Liu invited him to a meeting.
"What meeting?" Ai Zhixin has just arrived in the city and has a lot of things on his hands. He has to hold a meeting before his buttocks are warmed up. If it has nothing to do with finance and tax work, he will not thank you.
"It's a meeting about sorting out the customs industry."
"Tell Mayor Liu that I have too many things on my hands, so I won't come to participate..." Ai Zhixin frowned. He thought that Liu Xiang is also an official and has to show off, and he has to gather people for a meeting.
"Mayor Liu said that this meeting is related to you." Liu Xiang probably knew that he was not going to go, so he specifically informed the correspondent, "The custom tax issue in Guangzhou will be discussed at the rectification meeting..."
Ai Zhixin immediately changed his mind: "I'll go right away." (~^~)