The task force has been on its way for more than a month, and the economic situation in the country has now stabilized after hitting rock bottom. Although the prices of some commodities are still high due to shortages. However, under the strict price control measures, some traders did not dare to raise prices indiscriminately, otherwise they would be waiting for them with an arrest warrant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs police.

In order to stabilize the economic situation, increase fiscal revenues, and combat the soaring prices caused by the war, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has introduced a series of measures, the most important of which is the newly clarified state fiscal and taxation system.

To be honest, the country has been established for several years, and the previous tax revenue was a complete mess. At present, the main fiscal revenues of the state are divided into two categories, namely, general fiscal revenues and special fiscal revenues.

The general fiscal revenue is divided into two parts: the profits paid by state-owned enterprises and the income from naval privateering (since naval privateering is carried out almost every year, this is also included in the general fiscal revenue). As for other income from land ransoms, fines, etc., they are classified as special fiscal revenues because they are not regular incomes.

In general fiscal revenue, state-owned enterprises such as the Ping An Weaving Factory, the Northern Arsenal, and the State Reserve Grain Depot (export potatoes and furs) under the Ministry of Materials are the lion's share of the profits. Other enterprises such as the First Machinery Factory, Ping An Iron and Steel Plant (in a semi-suspended state), Ping'an Coal Mine, Honeycomb Coal Plant, Coking Plant (in a semi-suspended state), Dye Factory (in preparation state), Changshan Iron Mine, Henan Glass Factory, Zhenhai Shipyard, Anchor Chain Factory, etc., did not generate a large amount of profits due to various reasons, and some factories even lost money completely. But in general. These state-owned enterprises are the backbone of the national economy at this stage. It has contributed a lot of financial revenue to the government.

As for the privateer income of the Navy. In the previous three years, it received a fixed share of about 100,000 yuan per year. Of course, according to the agreement, a considerable part of it will still be given back to the Navy in the form of special funds for the Navy's special shipbuilding. Therefore, in fact, this part of the income that can be used for other expenditures is about 50,000 yuan per year, which is still an important supplement to the state fiscal revenue.

As for the special fiscal revenue, the main sources at present are the following: 1. The free people of the Republic of East China pay a land ransom of 5 yuan per mu for their land that has been cultivated continuously for more than three years. 2. Revenue from fines and confiscations. These include, inter alia, fines and confiscation of property for freemen and military personnel convicted by courts or military tribunals; The income from fines imposed by the discipline police on free citizens who violate the rules and regulations of discipline (worship of primitive religion, refusal to use the Chinese language, preservation of the customs of the original people, etc.); Other forms of fine income. 3. Income from the issuance of business licenses of enterprises. At present, in order to enrich the domestic commodity market, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has decided to speed up the issuance of business licenses for private enterprises, and levy license fees ranging from 10 to 20 yuan for each enterprise license applicant according to different industries.

It should be noted that at present, general fiscal revenues account for more than 95 per cent of the total state fiscal revenues. The proportion of special fiscal revenues in this proportion is really insignificant.

Since the end of the hostilities with the colonial trading companies of the British, the sea lines of communication of the Eastern Republic have been severely damaged and almost all of them have been paralyzed. Although the navy on the east coast did its best by escorting ships and attacking enemy ships, it also achieved some tactical victories. Unfortunately, the naval strength between the two sides is too far apart, and a tactical victory will not change the dilemma of still being strategically blockaded by the enemy.

After the blockade of the sea lines of communication, the troika of the East Coast economy - textile exports, agricultural exports, and arms exports - was almost completely paralyzed. In particular, the source of cotton raw materials in the textile industry was cut off by the British, which led to the suspension of production of two large and medium-sized textile enterprises, namely the Machine Textile Factory and the Ping An Weaving Factory, which caused a huge financial burden to the government. At present, unemployed textile workers even grow cotton and flax in Ping'an Town, relying on the basic wages paid by the government. Barely making ends meet.

According to incomplete statistics, it has been a year since the war with the British. The Republic of the East Coast has suffered almost $400,000-$500,000 in direct and indirect losses. As for other hidden losses, such as popular discontent caused by high prices and the inability to honour contracts with French agents, it is even more difficult to estimate.

The Executive Committee and the Ministry of Finance, which had lost most of their revenues in an instant due to the outbreak of the war, had to rack their brains to increase new sources of revenue in the face of the financial pressure of not knowing when the war would end and the financial pressure needed to keep the country running at a minimum.

In view of this situation, Tang Yuan and Xiao Mingli, members of the Central Executive Committee, submitted a high-profile proposal to the Executive Committee on clarifying the tax system, the core of which is to levy taxes domestically. Many taxes that had not been collected before, and many taxes that had not been clearly regulated before, had to be clarified one by one, and personnel should be dispatched to collect them in various cities and towns in the country to supplement the depleting central finances.

In their scheme, the first thing to be levied was a property tax, that is, an inventory of the property of each freeman, including real estate such as land, houses, workshops, mines, and movable property such as livestock, grain, and means of production. The amount of property of each freeman was then registered and taxed at the rate of 2 per cent. Among them, the property valuation is less than 50 yuan is exempt from taxation. These taxes may be levied in cash or in kind, but the proportion in kind may not exceed half. When there are irresistible events such as natural disasters and war damage in the country, the government can reduce or reduce certain taxes at its discretion.

Among them, the inventory statistics of real estate are carried out every three years; Movable property shall be estimated and declared by the taxpayer himself every year, and the tax collection authority shall have the right to verify and severely punish tax evasion.

Coming in second after property tax is income tax, which is the taxation of each person's income. It is worth noting that in the proposal of the two people, there is no distinction between people from all income classes, but the method of leviing 10% income tax on all people (those with a monthly income of less than 1 yuan are exempted from income tax) is adopted.

In addition to income tax, there are a series of taxes such as consumption tax, business tax, and customs duties. Among them, the business tax is levied on major state-owned and private enterprises and self-employed individuals in China, and is levied once every six months, and the tax rate is undetermined. Tentatively, the enterprise operator shall negotiate a fixed amount of tax with the tax collection authority separately every year, and then collect it uniformly. For example, at this stage, super-large enterprises such as East Coast Company have to pay a fixed amount of business tax of 20,000 yuan to the tax collection authority every year.

The excise tax is currently a specific tax, i.e. a tariff levied on luxury goods such as wine, tobacco, fine furs, fine furniture, jewelry, silk, tea, porcelain, etc., with a flat rate of 15%. The seller shall take the initiative to declare and pay the tax to the tax collection authority, and the tax collection authority may send personnel to verify it at any time.

Customs duties, on the other hand, are taxes levied on goods imported into the country from abroad. Depending on the importance of a particular commodity to the East Coast Republic of China, the tax rate varies. For example, gunpowder, spirits, copper, lead, pig iron, graphite, hardwood, cotton, wool and other materials that are urgently needed on the east coast are completely tariff-free; For general consumer goods such as sugar, cocoa, livestock, fur, raisins, etc., taxes ranging from 3% to 15%; Punitive tariffs of 50%-200% are imposed on foreign goods that compete with the East Coast, such as textiles and leather goods, as well as some luxury goods.

At the executive committee, Tang Yuan confidently stated that as long as the tax system is clarified, the central government's annual fiscal revenue can be conservatively estimated to increase by 60,000-70,000 yuan. Moreover, with the rise of the total economic volume and the increasing prosperity of the economy, this part of the income will rise and eventually become an important revenue of the central government.

In fact, the biggest tax targets of Tang Yuan and others' proposal at this stage are state-owned enterprises, cross-border people, and some wealthy immigrant officers and senior craftsmen. Therefore, this proposal caused a lot of criticism when the Executive Committee sent it to various units for consultation.

Although I understand that the good days of not paying taxes in the past are abnormal and abnormal, many people are always hard to give up their money, especially the collection of property tax, which requires the registration of everyone's land and factory, which makes some people feel unacceptable.

However, this proposal has received strong support from the military and a considerable number of technical and technical people. These people had long been blind to some of the high-profile people who worked in the government administration and privately opened workshops, and they united with some of the more rational and enlightened people to vote in favor of the provisional national congress held on May 5, 1637, which made the proposal of Tang Yuan and Xiao Mingli pass with 69% of the support.

After the proposal is approved and implemented, the first step is to carry out the personal property statistics of all citizens with assets of more than 50 yuan.

It's a huge undertaking. It is easy to check the acres of land and real estate, because there are records in the local government departments, but it is more troublesome to check some other aspects. For example, if you have to go door to door to check how many catties of grain, how many pigs, how many sheep there are in his house, and if the family also has a fruit forest or fish pond, you have to value it, which requires too much manpower. Moreover, at present, the Executive Committee has not trained so many cadres who can write and calculate to come out for statistics.

Therefore, the work is destined to be delayed, at least this year, and it looks like it will be difficult to complete. In desperation, the executive committee could only temporarily entrust the village heads, militia directors and other grassroots cadres of each village to make an estimate of the property of each household in the village, and then report it to the higher-level departments in a unified manner, and after summarizing, the central government will send a tax collector to carry out unified taxation. (To be continued......)