Li Ergou finally went to the homes of the villagers who refused to pay their taxes, accompanied by the village chief.

It was at this time that he finally understood the difficulty of these guys. Grandma is a bear, these tax debtors either speak yin and yang weirdly, sarcastically saying that tax policemen like Li Ergou only dare to play tricks at home, saying that when they went into battle to kill the enemy and seek benefits for the country, Li Ergou and others didn't know where to play in the mud; Either he spoke very impulsively, blew his beard and glared at every turn, or even went to the kitchen to bring a kitchen knife out and threaten; Or simply close the door and disappear, and let Village Chief Wang shout outside and break his throat and not open the door, which makes people angry.

It took village chief Wang and Li Ergou three days to go through all the seven production teams in this village, but the result was both threats and persuasion, and finally they recovered more than 100 yuan in taxes, which is really unacceptable. Li Ergou had the intention of seizing some of their property, such as cattle, sheep, horses, mules or something, but he was afraid of causing any bloodshed (this time he didn't bring his armor, knives and guns), so in the end he still held back, and planned to go back to the tax police office to discuss with a few seniors.

In fact, they do not have the power now, and the county does not advocate this kind of "sanction" method of knocking everyone down. To deal with these old scoundrels, basically we can only start with the township military association, and now the upper authorities attach great importance to the work of clearing tax arrears, and I believe that the township military union is not a lawless organization, even if it is short, we must see if the wind direction is right. In fact, the state has given great incentives to veterans, reducing taxes for many years, but if you treat this tax reduction policy as a lifelong thing, it is a bit excessive. If you still can't do the work, I'm sorry, the tax police in the four miles and eight townships will probably be gathered, and then there will be a general battle to clean up the tax arrears, and these difficult bones will be taken down one by one, and then see if they are still hard-hearted.

Of course, for ordinary tax debtors with little background, it is not so troublesome. The tax police have long been familiar with dealing with these things, so they go directly to the court to sue first, and then take a note to arrest people. You know, their tax police have the right to enforce the law, more than a dozen tax policemen rode over on tall horses, armed with knives, guns, swords, halberds, how many people dare to carry it?

Paying taxes in accordance with the law is the obligation of the people. If you don't pay taxes, I won't pay taxes, damn it, what do we eat and drink? Well, there seems to be something wrong with that. Well, changing to not paying taxes will seriously disrupt the national order, weaken the functions of the government, and then affect the country's development strategy.

Li Ergou finally returned to the tax police office in the Cuiwu Township government compound on the evening of February 28, and then reported the information to the director. The next day, the director wrote a report and handed it to the postman to send to the county tax office.

On March 4, 1688, Huang Hanhua, the deputy minister who was actually in charge of the work of the Ministry of Taxation of the Republic of East Coast of China, located in Qingdao Port, was discussing with Kong Dahui, who was the deputy director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Taxation.

"Lao Kong, seeing that the country's use has surged year after year, and now the central government's financial resources are less after the reform of the tax-sharing system, how do you think this fiscal expenditure should be made this year?" Huang Hanhua snuffed out the cigarette butt in his hand, got up and walked to the window, looking at the quiet blue bay outside the window, but he couldn't calm down in his heart.

The reform of the tax-sharing system at the central and local levels has been implemented for several years. The current trend is that the local financial strength has been greatly strengthened, so that they have relatively sufficient funds to carry out education and health popularization, and at the same time to build all kinds of buildings, halls, roads, railways, canals, wharves, and flood control facilities. In addition, they also have a strong impulse to invest in small local state-owned enterprises, such as small brick kilns, small cement factories, small lime factories, small food factories, hotels and post stations, small machinery factories, small textile factories, and so on.

Taking Qingdao County, where the Ministry of Taxation is located today, as an example, the county expanded its wharf and ship repair yard last year, and at the same time spent a large amount of resettlement money to attract the relocation of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard (Dongfang County is not very suitable for the further development of this large shipbuilding enterprise), not to mention that they have recruited professionals in finance, foreign languages, trade, logistics and other fields from all over the world to come to work, and they did not hesitate to give a settlement fee ranging from hundreds of yuan to more than 1,000 yuan, which shows its wealth.

However, just before the reform of the tax-sharing system, Qingdao County still had to hand over a large amount of taxes to the central government, and the Government Council would arrange the expenditures in a unified manner, and the living money on hand was limited, so it could only do some tinkering work, and even the funds for the construction of the branch lines of the urban light rail system had to be carried out in the form of issuing local bonds.

The main reason for this arrangement by the central government is that with the continuous expansion of territory, population and economic scale, the central government no longer has the ability to control in all aspects in a meticulous and comprehensive manner, so it is better to decisively delegate power to the localities and put the funds at their disposal, which seems to be more efficient in the use of funds, eliminate waste, and build good places.

Of course, this model is not without its drawbacks. In fact, opponents of him accuse the central government of weakening its finances and preventing it from being able to balance regional development through transfers. Do you think, when more than 60 percent of the country's fiscal revenue is taken away by the local government, the rich localities will naturally have a lot of money to carry out construction and consolidate their advantages, while the poor localities can only stare at each other, and they will have to seek bank loans to build some third-class and second-class national highways of a local nature.

Cadres in counties such as the Brazilian Altiplano often complain that the local government is so poor (in some areas that land sales even account for the majority of the finances) and that the central government is close to the Pampa and the Transriver region, is this a rhythm of abandoning them and leaving millions of people to fend for themselves? If this is the case, then what is the point of the country's long-standing immigration policy? Could it be that the Pampa Plain is a frontier land, and the Brazilian highlands are not frontier lands? The old men of the Government Council may wish to look at the map, and the large area of the Brazilian highlands was cut from the Portuguese in one go, and the result is that the degree of development is still very pitiful, is this how it should be?

It's a pity that their voices were directly ignored by the upper echelons, or not really taken seriously. At that time, the Liao Xiaoyao government attached great importance to the development of the Pampa, but now the Ma Wenqiang government has changed, and while continuing to invest in the Pampa Plain, it also intends to open up the Hexi land of the Chaco Plain, which makes them angry, but there is nothing they can do.

"Nowadays, to encourage the export of grain and cloth, although there is a worry about tax rebates, but the treasury should be increasingly full, why should the proprietor worry about this?" Kong Dahui, the man with glasses, was puzzled: "But there are changes in military spending?" ”

"Not really!" Huang Hanhua patted the window hatefully and said angrily: "The Central Executive Committee has decided to reorganize the three departments of the Serving the National Army, the National Protector Army, and the Loyal National Army, with a preliminary number of 6,000~9,000 people, and all weapons, equipment, food, medicine and other materials will be spent by the state treasury. At the same time, the First and Second Fleets were put into a state of combat readiness, and in particular, the most powerful First Fleet, most of them left Hong Kong and headed north to wait for changes. As a result, military spending has skyrocketed, and the treasury has been quite insufficient. In addition, the army is now clamoring to increase the establishment of four mixed battalions, whether it succeeds or not, this is another place of potential expenditure, and the financial budget is simply impossible to do, and even our tax department has to eat and hang up, and make every effort to clear the arrears, which is a job that offends people, alas, it is really difficult. ”

Kong Dahui also frowned when he heard this, and only after a long time did he sigh and said: "It has been several years since the reform of the tax system has been carried out, and it is difficult to turn it around. It is really ...... that some military personnel have risen up to discuss increasing expenditures, and the whole country has been paying more than one side (it is inevitable that military spending will break 60 percent of the central government's fiscal revenue this year

"The proprietor, can't stop the expansion of armaments?" Kong Dahui asked again.

"I'm afraid I can't!" Huang Hanhua shook his head and said helplessly: "Now the situation on the European continent is delicate, not only the Ottomans and Russia are fighting fiercely in the Balkans and the Black Sea, but at the same time, the Kingdom of France is ready to move, and it seems to have the intention of annexing the surrounding areas, especially Northern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, which threaten the interests of our country, and they have to be guarded against. In addition, the Princes of the Executive Committee were most concerned with England and the United Provinces of the North Sea, where the situation was obscure, and there were fears that the merger of Britain and the Netherlands, with William III, Prince of Orange, as head of both countries, would be very detrimental to the market sales on the east coast, and countermeasures must be taken. And these, of course, cost money. ”

"The countries of the European continent are no different from pigs!" Kong Dahui was also a little annoyed, and only listened to him say: "In the past 20 years, disasters have occurred one after another, and there is almost no peace, and seven or eight out of ten of the country's revenue is consumed by military spending, and there is almost nothing to say about the people who use it for construction. The Ottomans were terrified of the great powers, and emptied the treasury with their reckless military force, and after the outbreak of war, the ordinary income was not enough to help the country, and the only way to pay for it was to borrow money from me. In Kong's view, the Ottomans also had to borrow money to stamp their unreliability for wartime purposes, that is, to make up for the war and prepare for important matters after the war, and also to borrow. If our country wants to occupy its market and contain Russia and Austria, I am afraid that it will be involved in spending. The proprietor, the 1687-1688 fiscal year was not easy, and the pressure on the tax department weighed more than a thousand pounds. ”

"Alright, don't call me the proprietor. Lao Kong, you are also a state cadre now, and you are acting as if you are my personal staff, and it is no longer the meeting in Guangzhou, so pay attention in the future. Huang Hanhua walked to the wine cabinet, poured himself a glass of wine, and then said distressedly: "Now things are clear." The state has a lot of money to spend, so the idea is hit on the head of our Ministry of Taxation, and this action to clear up the tax arrears must be carried out, and it must be carried out vigorously, at least 5 million yuan in arrears of taxes must be collected, which is a bottom line paid to me by the Government Council. Their original words were that 5 million is not too little, 10 million is not too much, in short, we must see the money, otherwise our tax department will be assessed one by one, and the matter of building a new second tax police battalion will be 100% yellow. Lao Kong, this is the situation, I was also forced to this part, there is no way. Oh, of course, I came to you today, not only to tell you about this, but mainly to ask you to study whether there is a way or space to increase new taxes under our existing fiscal and taxation system to expand fiscal revenue? You don't have any pressure, just talk your mind, there are no outsiders here anyway. ”

In other words, it has been almost eight years since the last tax reform. The East Coast government, which has tasted the sweetness of tax increases, is now putting its mind on this aspect, in fact, it is also a very natural thing, making money, which government will not? It can be said that they are all self-taught, and this beacon of civilization on the East Coast is naturally no exception.

The finances of the East Coast Republic of China have always been divided into two major parts: sub-tax revenue and non-tax income. The former is easy to understand, that is, taxes, and the latter is more complicated, but it generally mainly includes the profits paid by state-owned enterprises, public property income such as land, forests, rivers and so on (land rent, transfer money, etc.), fines and confiscation. Taking the fiscal year 1686-1687 as an example, the total non-tax income added up to about 1,240 yuan, which seems to be a lot, but compared with the tax income, the growth rate is actually unsatisfactory. The main reason for this is that state-owned enterprises are facing the challenge of a stronger and stronger private economy, and their profit margins have begun to decline slowly, and small state-owned enterprises in some non-regulated industries (i.e., industries with low thresholds for capital, technology, etc., and full competition) are no longer even making much money. Even some state-owned enterprises that are still very profitable have to reduce the dividends to major shareholders (that is, the central finance), and keep more funds in the enterprise, or improve technology, or add machinery, or train personnel, or build marketing channels, in short, in order to better survive, they do not have much energy to support the central government, after all, it is not a few decades ago, and it is no longer the era when they can make a lot of money while lying down - of course, for Nanhai Group, Tieling Heavy Industry Consortium, Ping An Coal and Steel Consortium, Montenegro Industrial Company, Competition still does not exist for enterprises with strong profitability such as the North Pharmaceutical Factory and the North Chemical Plant, but it is undeniable that the overall profitability of the group of state-owned enterprises is indeed declining year by year, even at the moment when the overseas market is expanding, which is an objective fact and does not depend on anyone's will.

In this case, it is understandable that the growth of non-tax revenues, which is a major item of the national treasury, has been slow. If this item wants to increase by a large margin, in addition to the recovery of profitability of the state-owned enterprise group, I am afraid that the only way to do this is to greatly increase the land sales target and rely on land finance to continue its life. However, the problem is that now that agricultural development has entered a bottleneck period, the grain planting industry is in a slight depression, and the gap between industrial and agricultural incomes has begun to widen. Huang Hanhua feels that in addition to the newly arrived immigrants and non-nationals who have become regulars, the enthusiasm of native-born nationals in this regard should be declining year by year, unless the government now rises up to formulate policies and try to solve the phenomenon of inverted industrial and agricultural incomes, but this is how difficult it is.

After all, this is an act that undermines the laws of the market economy, and it belongs to the government's choice to forcibly intervene in the market, and no one dares to guarantee what kind of results will be born in the future.

It doesn't work, it doesn't work either! Then, if the fiscal revenue of the East Coast Republic of China wants to achieve another wave of relatively rapid growth, it will only be possible to increase the number of taxes, which has to be said to be a great irony and an embarrassing reality. Huang Hanhua is the deputy minister of the Ministry of Taxation, and he is well aware of the current income and expenditure situation of individuals and enterprises in the East Coast, and understands that the tax increase will definitely cause a certain degree of backlash, especially those business owners, who may be standing behind them, and they will not have to play with their villains at home every day in the future! This kind of work to offend people actually fell on my head, what a bad luck!