Section 337 Indirect taxes, direct taxes and tax packages
But "property" is a very broad concept. As far as this time and space is concerned, everything from land and houses to antiques, valuable clothing, jewelry and sold slaves can be counted as "property". For shops, counters, scales, etc.
A type of business tool-"money-making guy" is also property.
Valuing these items one by one is almost impossible for the tax system of the Senate. Firstly, they lack qualified accounting personnel, and secondly, the valuation of many items has no standards at all - for example, many wealthy families generally have large quantities of them.
The paintings and calligraphy on display, toys, antiques... are all valuable in theory, but it is difficult to measure them with price.
This kind of randomness is a great opportunity for power rent-seeking. The elders do not have a strong head and six arms, so they cannot do everything themselves. The integrity of the naturalized cadres and the anti-corruption ability of the Cheka cannot be trusted too much.
Ai Zhixin thought over and over again, combined with the suggestions of other financial department personnel, and decided to focus on real estate such as shops, mansions, mountains, and farmland in property valuation.
These real estate properties are not easy to hide. The market has relatively clear transaction prices for reference, and there are standards for valuation data to follow. In particular, the registration of real estate properties such as houses, homes, and land was relatively complete in the Ming Dynasty. Every time the Senate accepted a city, it had to be re-registered.
Real estate registration is carried out and a real estate deed is issued, so the property rights information is quite complete. It is quite reasonable as a basis for tax collection.
Real estate such as agricultural land, mountains and forests also have relatively clear registration information. In particular, rural areas in the suburbs of Guangzhou have begun the work of "clearing land acres" and re-registering various types of rural land. After this part of the information is released, not only the collection of agricultural taxes will be improved
Protection, together with the calculation of real estate taxes, can also be carried out.
Slaves are also considered a kind of property, so when property taxes are levied, their value is calculated based on their deeds and included in the total property calculation.
In accordance with the principle of "containing prohibition and taxation", we also levy a "slaveholding tax", abolishing the exemption point for slaveholding in the past and levying it on a per-person basis. At the same time, we continue to implement the progressive principle, the more slaves, the higher the tax rate.
Due to difficulties in valuation, liquid properties such as goods, currency (gold and silver), etc., can only be estimated through fixed properties of real estate for the time being. Generally, they are classified according to the occupation of the taxable objects. A businessman thinks that his current assets will be relatively high. When calculating assets, according to
It is calculated as 100% of the total value of real estate. Large landowners calculate it as 50%. Rich peasants, large households and small businessmen do not estimate current assets.
Real property plus estimated current property equals total assets.
The tax rate is 1% of total assets per year for large businessmen with assets above a certain level, 0.5% for large landowners, and 0.2% for ordinary large households, rich peasants, and small businessmen.
Small households whose real estate value is below a certain value are only levied a nominal head tax.
Agricultural tax is a special tax in property tax. In terms of specific collection, the progressive system is abolished and a fixed tax rate is adopted based on the land area. In-kind taxes on crops such as grains are the main ones.
Agricultural tax collection already has a fairly mature mechanism in Hainan. Ai Zhixin does not need to worry too much, just follow the original regulations.
The second largest type of tax is circulation tax.
Roughly speaking, it is lijin, customs duties, admission inspection fee, consumption tax, etc.
There are two major tax values: one is a basic tax rate for entry-to-market sales similar to tariffs, which is levied by setting up cards at city gates, ferries, bridges and other traffic arteries.
All goods that are to be sold in the market are subject to an initial 5% charge. They must undergo random inspections before being sold in the market to ensure basic safety. Goods that enter the market without passing the inspection stage are regarded as private goods. Once there are health and quality problems, buyers and cargo owners
All will be severely punished.
The second is for some bulk commodity trading wholesale markets: such as rice, salt, tea, spices, wood, wine, meat, vegetables, fishery products, etc., special ad valorem taxes are levied in major wholesale markets.
The cumulative circulation tax paid on general commodities shall not exceed 20% of the local price. Each tax collection checkpoint and market will provide relevant tax stamps as tax collection vouchers to avoid repeated tax collection. For people's livelihood shops with insufficient market supply, tax exemption and low-price tax will be implemented.
tax rate.
The third largest tax is stamp tax. Stamp tax is actually a direct tax. However, the tax burden is relatively small. The problem is that the amount collected cannot be too high. Ai Zhixin plans to collect stamp tax on license plates. Each shop has a relevant quota for selling license plates and pays stamp tax every year.
The money paid for the relevant licenses can be used to operate related products and be subject to supervision. This tax is temporarily collected by each trade association. After collection, the finance and taxation department will return part of it as the trade association's expenses and is also responsible for supervision.
The issuance of various business licenses, licenses, land deeds, house deeds, contracts, etc. all require a one-time or annual payment of stamp duty to strengthen the concept of contract law.
Ai Zhixin's plan mainly focuses on circulation tax. Circulation tax is an indirect tax, which has low tax collection cost and low tax pain. It also has low requirements on the collection personnel and meets the existing technical and human conditions of the Senate. Direct tax collection is complicated and difficult to collect.
The cost is high, the tax burden is painful, and there is the possibility of intensifying social conflicts, but it has the social benefit of balancing the rich and the poor, so a part of it still has to be levied.
The overall tax policy is: Currency reform comes first, taxation comes second. Taxation is used to promote the advancement of currency reform, and at the same time, it forces the original old industrial and commercial enterprises and large households to introduce modern accounting systems and improve their accounts.
When collecting tax, legal currency and some physical goods (agricultural taxes) will be collected. Broken silver, copper coins and other physical goods from shops will not be collected.
When it comes to property tax collection, first be more lenient and overcharge, and then if the other party applies for reconsideration, the overtaxed tax can be refunded. When refunding, as long as the other party provides relevant accounting information: such as property, land deeds, and accounting books to prove the overcharge, even if the other party has
Concealment can also be used to refund the overtaxed amount, thereby encouraging businessmen and large households to declare their property, sales revenue and other accounting information during the tax refund review process.
Tax rebates are given with a certain amount of interest. The tax rebates are paid in legal currency, and the specific implementation is mainly to pay for circulation certificates. To ensure that the currency system of the new legal currency: silver dollars and circulation certificates is stable and easy to use. The legal currency actually contains seigniorage, which is higher than the general tax revenue.
many.
In order to cultivate the thinking of tax obligations, adults over the age of 18, regardless of gender, are required to pay a poll tax. The tax amount of the poll tax is very low. The taxpayer purchases a tax stamp by himself and affixes it to the back of the certificate. When checking the certificate, if there is no tax stamp, it means
To evade taxes.
Ai Zhixin knew that his simplified and simplified tax system still had big problems, especially in terms of specific implementation, and there were still many details to standardize. He thought about it and decided to put this matter to the Guangzhou Elders Meeting.
Let’s talk about it later – after all, in practice, it is better to brainstorm ideas than to work behind closed doors.
He knew very well that what he was going to do would be considered "horrible" in the old time and space, especially the big households in Guangzhou. You can imagine their faces after learning about the tax plan. They really wanted to "eat their flesh and sleep on their skin"
”. Even the shopkeepers of small shops who have been exempted from extortion due to “changing the world” will probably cry when they see these tax items and say that they can’t survive.
After a few months of implementation, there will probably be merchants in Guangzhou hanging themselves into water because of tax issues - this is inevitable. When the government of the Republic of China levied the slaughter tax, there were anti-slaughter tax riots in various places.
In the end, many places failed to implement it. The introduction of slaughter tax after the founding of New China also met with great resistance.
Once the new tax system is fully rolled out, the social conflicts in Guangzhou will inevitably intensify. The harmonious atmosphere that the Senate and Guangzhou citizens have enjoyed since entering the city will probably no longer exist.
However, both the central and local governments are spending money like water. Not long ago, Mayor Liu made a lot of money because of the ban on tooth shops and witchcraft cases. Although the subsequent plague has put a huge strain on the finances.
The loss is small, but there is still some balance, so Ai Zhixin still has a buffer time to gradually implement and rectify the tax. Since the cow in Guangzhou has fallen into the hands of the Senate, there is no reason not to milk it properly.
. According to the estimates of the Wudaokou public figures, Guangzhou’s tax potential is huge.
However, what makes Ai Zhixin more difficult is the situation outside Guangzhou. In addition to being the director of the Finance and Taxation Bureau in Guangzhou, he is also the finance and taxation commissioner of the Guangdong region.
As the second largest tax source of the Ming Dynasty, Guangdong has no reason not to raise more tax revenue under the rule of the Senate. However, Guangzhou and even the Pearl River Delta are easy to say. After all, it is the place with the highest concentration of senators and naturalized cadres.
Although the level of governance is not as good as that of Shanghai, Taiwan and Jeju, it is still much better than that of the Ming Dynasty.
But as soon as they left the Pearl River Delta, the Senate's governance efficiency was extremely reduced. Ai Zhixin's tax system can still be barely implemented in the county. Agricultural taxes can rely on the past system of collecting grain taxes. As for other taxes, they can probably be implemented.
There is no possibility of expropriation.
Ai Zhixin thought over and over again and came up with the idea of implementing a tax farming system in these new ruling areas with weak ruling foundations.
The so-called tax farming system means that the state contracts the government's tax collection activities to the highest bidder, who only needs to pay a certain amount of rent to the country in advance to retain other tax revenue. The tax farming system has a long history. In the 19th century
The former tax package system is the most important tax collection mechanism used by many countries. Under this system, the tax package actually allows the country to obtain higher tax revenue with lower administrative costs.
However, Ai Zhixin himself felt that this proposal was a bit risky. Because in the Senate, the tax farming system was a sinful system because it allowed the fate of taxpayers to be manipulated in the hands of greedy tax farmers. And historically, tax farming has
There are countless examples of the insatiable greed and wanton exploitation of tax merchants that have had a bad impact. In almost all history books, the tax farming system is an object of criticism.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Strategy of Guangdong and Guangxi Chapter 64