"Lao Wang, some taxes in your village have been in arrears for a long time, shouldn't you clear them?" On February 25, 1688, outside a small village south of Cuiwu Township, Jinglong County, Baoding Prefecture, Li Ergou, wearing the uniform of the tax department, fanned the wind with his hat and said to a middle-aged man with a sad face in front of him.

Li Ergou's original name was Li Ergou, and his family originally opened a tea shop in Jinglong Town, the county seat, and the business was not bad. However, because of a triangular debt case, their tea shop could not be opened, and finally the capital chain was broken and declared bankrupt. Fortunately, Li Ergou originally had some dog meat friends, all of whom were rangers who had been rampant in the township for many years, and they had all been incorporated by the tax department at that time and became a tax police officer in various places, and later he was also introduced to him and became one of the five tax policemen in the Cuiwu Township Tax Police Office, responsible for the tax collection of various villages and private markets in the southern generation.

To be honest, since he took office as a tax policeman, he has generally been relatively peaceful, without too many bad deeds. Like some other tax policemen, they have a deep habit of arresting large tax arrears and locking them up in the tax police office at every turn, until the family members have scraped together enough money to pay the money. This kind of thing, to be honest, Li Ergou has never done it, and he doesn't want to do it, even if his performance is a little ugly, it doesn't matter, because it doesn't conform to his principles.

What's more, since the General Administration of Taxation was reorganized into the Ministry of Taxation, and Vice Minister Huang Hanhua actually presided over the work -- this gentleman was also very lucky, originally promoted to deputy director of the General Administration of Taxation, and later the organization was reorganized, he was promoted from a level out of thin air to become the vice minister of the Ministry of Taxation, and presided over the actual work of the ministry instead of the minister who retired from a long illness -- has always emphasized the importance of "civilized law enforcement", that is, the tax departments in various localities are required to change their style and attitude, and no longer arbitrarily detain, beat and scold those who owe taxes. Therefore, in such a context, Li Ergou naturally has no need to change himself.

However, when it comes to some large tax arrears, it is indeed a headache. Especially those in rural areas, the family is not without money, and the result is not that they refuse to pay taxes! You must know that the cost of living of the peasants themselves is low, and they do not need to pay much tax, so it stands to reason that they should not owe taxes so much. Li Ergou once carefully checked the information in the tax police room, and also talked with some cadres in several villages under his management (note: large villages, under the jurisdiction of several small villages, that is, production teams, numbered by numbers), and learned that most peasants actually only need to pay movable property tax, real estate tax, and land tax, and other taxes and fees are either not aimed at them, or have been collected in the wholesale or production links, and basically do not need to be collected by them, the grassroots tax police.

Compared with these peasants, urban residents, who mainly work in industry and commerce, need to pay personal income tax, deed tax, stamp duty and other taxes in addition to movable property tax and immovable property tax, and business operators also need to pay consumption tax, business tax, customs duties, tobacco and alcohol tax, four unified taxes and other taxes (inheritance tax is ignored). In particular, the tobacco and alcohol tax and the unified tax have taken a big advantage in this regard, because there are still many people in the countryside who brew their own local wine, eat non-machined flour, and make homemade local tobacco, and do not have to pay any taxes at all (or openly evade taxes). Coupled with the prevalence of non-cash transactions such as barter, and the non-public sale of their handicrafts by many craftsmen, the consumption tax on many items has also been escaped, and the tax burden is much lower than that of urban residents, but the degree of arrears is far greater than that of urban residents, which is indeed a little speechless.

The focus of rural tax arrears is on movable property tax and immovable property tax, and because the land tax can be paid with grain, there is almost no arrears. However, the degree of arrears in the chattel tax and the real estate tax, which are still the main sources of the East Coast's finances, is quite serious, so that the 10.239 million yuan that should be collected on the books is actually only more than 60 percent, and the state directly loses more than 3 million yuan in taxes, which is indeed quite amazing.

In fact, the main energy of local tax authorities is also spent on this. The county taxation bureau is responsible for formulating an overall movable property tax and immovable property tax collection plan, and clarifying the general amount, while the township tax office focuses on assessing the actual situation of each village and agreeing on a specific tax amount with the village chief and villager representatives.

In the 1685-1686 fiscal year, Li Ergou came to this village, which owed a total of 327 yuan in taxes for the above two taxes, and if you count the arrears accumulated over the years, it would be more than 1,000 yuan, which was already a remarkable number, so Li Ergou had to go to the countryside in person and ask the village chief for inquiry.

"Lao Li, it's really hard for people to take money out of their pockets, whether he has money or not. In particular, there are a few families of veterans, all of them are fierce, and I have also done work at the door, but they just don't pay, what can you do? It's really urgent, and people threaten to find some well-mixed comrades-in-arms to support you, what can you do? I'm also a family person, and I can't afford to get along with these people. The village chief, known as "Lao Wang", shook his head again and again when he heard this, and said with a sad face: "I don't even dare to exclude them from the rural cooperatives now, for fear that they will be beaten with sacks at night." It is said that veterans are of high quality, but that also scores people, these masters have fought and killed people, this look at people is not right, I dare not offend them, Lao Li, don't force me. ”

Li Ergou was speechless when he heard it. To tell the truth, he didn't dare to offend these people, because of the large number of demobilized cadres and the frequent activities of organizations such as the township soldiers' association, the veterans at the grassroots level on the east bank are indeed a very large force. Under normal circumstances, because of the relationship between discipline and obedience, these people are a sharp weapon to stabilize the grassroots. However, as the saying goes, the same rice raises hundreds of people, and such a large group of veterans, and there is already a certain degree of organization, then it is inevitable that some undesirable elements will be produced.

The aforementioned people who owe taxes and don't pay their taxes are fine, at least they haven't bothered anyone else. However, some people who rely on the network of the township soldiers' union to do business are very good, and it is common to oppress others, and it can be said that it has affected the economic order in the rural areas to a considerable extent, so that the grassroots cadres are full of complaints and strongly demand rectification. For this reason, in the middle of last year, the Government Council sent a letter to the Executive Committee, asking it to coordinate with relevant personnel of the Joint Staff Headquarters and others to sort out and rectify the organizations such as the Township Soldiers' Association that "hid filth and dirt." The military department also promised to rectify the situation after sending people to investigate, but it has not yet seen much effect, and there are still many veterans in many places who resist taxes and do not pay them or pass on the tax burden to others.

"Lao Wang, you are also the village head, so there is nothing you can do about them?" Li Ergou was a little upset now, so his tone was not so good, so he just heard him say: "If these people can't take it, the township will report this year, asking the roving medical team not to come to your village, and the township central primary school will not let the children in your village go to school, and you will wait to be scolded by one or two thousand people from the seven production teams in the village!" ”

"This, this, Lao Li, you can't be so ruthless in the township, right?" When Village Chief Wang heard this, he was anxious, and said in a rough voice: "Just to collect a few dollars, you have to cut off the medical team?" It's no different from murder! ”

"Lao Wang, this is also something that can't be helped. Your father was smuggled from the Qing Kingdom in Ningbo, I think he should have told you a lot about urging classes in the countryside, right? To be honest, our Great East Coast is really tolerant and civilized enough. In the Ming and Qing Kingdoms, people like these who don't pay taxes have been arrested and put in prison and died, right? Even in the countries of the European continent, their property was auctioned off, and they were reduced to debt slavery, and they were sent to ships as slave oarsmen. Li Ergou sighed and said, "The imperial court also needs to collect taxes to maintain various expenses. You see, the Navy has invested a lot of money in recent years, and the ships have been launched one after another, don't you need money? The sea is gone! You don't know these things when you stay in the countryside all day, but when I read Pravda and Kommersant, I understand that the imperial court is really expanding its armaments, and it is very difficult to break a penny in half and spend it. ”

In fact, from some perspectives, Li Ergou's words are not wrong. According to the figures for the 1686-1687 fiscal year compiled by the Ministry of Finance, the East Coast Republic of China (including South Africa) collected a total of 37.829 million yuan of revenue on paper - 25.424 million yuan of tax revenue and 12.405 million yuan of non-tax income - according to the reform of the tax-sharing system, more than 15 million yuan of revenue attributable to the central government and more than 22 million yuan of fiscal revenue attributable to local governments at all levels.

That is to say, the central government only got 15 million out of the small 40 million yuan of fiscal revenue, but it has to bear various expenditures, including huge military spending, and it is no wonder that the executive committee and the public are brewing to launch two new gold-making machines, including the water conservancy lottery and the education lottery, after the transportation lottery, which is really poor!

Therefore, you can now understand why the local tax departments are so concerned about paying the arrears of taxes, in fact, the small 40 million taxes are only on paper, and it is quite good to actually collect seven or eight percent. If we do not take some measures against those who have accumulated large debts, I am afraid that more people will follow the same example, which will lead to all kinds of unfavorable taxation and the depletion of the state finances, and in the end nothing can be done.

You know, the situation on the European continent is now at a very delicate juncture, and the people on the east coast began to invest heavily in naval construction a few years ago, and there are already certain results. And these undoubtedly require a large amount of money to maintain, if there is no money at a critical moment, wouldn't it be very wrong? Therefore, the country is now desperate to clean up the arrears, and not only that, but a new round of tax reform is probably coming. As for the reason, it's actually very simple, it's a tax increase!