The guards handed each of the governors a copy of the tax reform plan drawn up by the emperor himself.

The core of this plan is two points, one is to change the existing tax adjustment law to a two-tax law, and the other is to reform the commercial tax that basically does not collect much tax at present.

As soon as Yang Su and other officials heard about the tax reform, they were a little moved, because taxation is the cornerstone of the country, and it is unthinkable to move a little casually. And when I look at the first article of the tax reform, which is to change the existing rent modulation, I can't help but be even more surprised.

Since the beginning of Qin's unification of the world, the regular taxes of the Chinese dynasties were generally derived from Mencius's levy on corn, cloth and silk, and forced labor as the theoretical basis, and were levied according to the three items of "rent", "transfer" and "service" (field rent, special products, and forced labor). In this dynasty, it was stipulated that the people could be exempted from military service if they lost money, and they were replaced by government employees, which was called "Yong", and "rent and transfer service" became "rent and Yong".

The rent modulation of this dynasty is based on the uniform field system, and Ding Nan (21 years old) and middle-aged men over 18 years old are each granted 100 acres of land, of which 20 acres are Yongye fields (never returned), and 80 acres are returned after the death of the mouth divided fields. At the same time, the "Law on Rent Adjustment" was promulgated, stipulating that the land rent, adjustment and servitude that should be paid by Tian Dingnan are rent and mediation. Realize "if you have land, you will have rent, if you have a household, you will have a tune, and if you have a body, you will have mediocrity". The imperial court stipulates that every Ding will pay 2 stone of millet to the state every year, which is rent; 2 zhang of silk, 3 taels of cotton (or 2 zhang 4 feet of cloth, 3 catties of hemp), for the tune; After serving for 20 days, it is called regular service, and those who do not serve receive 3 feet of silk (or 3.6 feet of cloth) per day, which is mediocre. If the assignment is increased due to events, the additional number of days will be used to offset the rent adjustment, and "five days in ten days will be exempted from the transfer." Thirty days will be exempted from rent and adjustment", and the total number of additional days and regular duty shall not exceed 50 days.

This kind of rent-yong modulation based on the equalization system is still very good. But there are also big limitations. The biggest limitation is that the population continues to rise as the country stabilizes. In the end, there was no land to be granted to the government. The modulation of rent is basically the uniform field system, where there is land, there is rent, there is a household, there is a tune, and there is a body. And once there is no land to grant, then the people have no land but still have to pay rent, which is contradictory. At the beginning of the founding of the country, it was better, everyone had land, and slowly the land became less and less, or even no land to divide. The rent has to be paid, and this is a big problem. This is actually a poll tax in disguise, which seems fair, but in fact it is the most unfair.

And what is the two-tax law proposed by Yi Feng? It was in history that after the collapse of the Juntian system in the Middle and Tang dynasties, the imperial court had to reform the new tax system.

Historically, after the introduction of the two tax systems, for more than 1,000 years, the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and dynasties, although the tax systems were different. However, the main tax is basically tinkering with this basic tax system.

The core of the two taxes in the Tang Dynasty should be to measure the amount of revenue to make a system, first budget how much money the government will use, and then how much tax will be levied on the people. Specifically, we should refer to the fiscal expenditures of previous years and take an average amount. The total amount of tax is then set and then distributed to the localities, and the localities then set the tax rate according to the tax quota. The second is to cancel the distinction between subject and guest. Legally recognize the status of the customer. This is because the tax rate is not set by the central government, but by the local government according to the tax quota. As a result, the more densely populated the area, the lower the per capita tax rate. In the case that there is no distinction between the host and the guest. People from other places have moved into this low-tax area, which in turn has further increased the difference in population density and tax rates, creating a vicious circle.

Third, the difference between the rich and the poor is not without poverty, and the amount of tax is determined according to the amount of assets, and the unfairness caused by the original fixed levy per capita is abolished. Fourth, "two taxes in autumn and summer", so it is called two taxes, and the original three items of "rent adjustment" are merged into two taxes and shall not be levied separately. The three items are combined into one, which is simple and straightforward.

The promulgation of the two tax laws of China and Tang Dynasty can be said to have revitalized China and Tang Dynasty and allowed the Tang Dynasty to continue for a long time, but the core of this tax law is good, but there are many deficiencies in the specific situation.

The two tax laws that Yi Feng is making now are basically made on this basis.

Yi Feng's two-tax law was first changed from the rent-adjustment method based on the conquest of grain, cloth and other physical goods, to the collection of money, which was taxed twice a year. Third, labor service was completely abolished, and labor was calculated as exemption money, which was directly calculated into the two taxes, and the people did not need to serve labor anymore and did not need to pay additional exemption money.

The most core point is that it does not live within the limits of income, but according to the rent system, the original 2 stones of corn per rent are rented; 2 zhang of silk, 3 taels of cotton (or 2 zhang 4 feet of cloth, 3 catties of hemp), for the tune; After 20 days of service, it was calculated as money, and then divided by 100 acres of land to get the tax money per mu. Finally, according to this, the people of the world are taxed according to the acres of land, if you have 100 acres of land, you will pay a tax of 100 acres, if you have 10 acres of land, you will only pay a tax of 10 acres, if you have no acres of land, then you do not have to pay any tax, if you have 1,000 acres of land, you have to pay a tax of 1,000 acres. In short, these taxes are all calculated into the acres of land, and the taxes are levied according to the acres of land owned, and the more land is levied, and the less land is levied, but for the state, the amount of land in the world will not change, so the taxes collected by the state will not change, but this change will not make the landless people still have to pay taxes, nor will it let those landlords who own a large amount of land only pay taxes according to their heads.

The two taxes of Yifeng are completely different from the two taxes of the Tang Dynasty, and the two taxes of Yifeng only have the name of paying taxes twice in the spring and autumn, but there is no different classification of household tax and land tax of the two taxes of the Tang Dynasty.

Su Wei looked at the emperor's tax reform plan, and silently calculated a few numbers in his heart, according to the records of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the imperial court had just carried out a large-scale reading of the land population, and a large number of hidden fields and hidden households had been investigated, and now the inventory of the country has a total of about 10 million hectares of land, a total of more than 1 billion acres of cultivated land, more than 9 million households, and a population of more than 50 million.

Under the new tax law, the tax per 100 mu is two stones of millet, two zhang of silk, three taels of cotton, and 20 days of service. So a rough calculation, the imperial court can collect more than 20 million stone millet every year, as well as 10 million horses of silk, more than 1.8 million catties of cotton, the money for the service is three feet of silk per day, and the 20-day service is 60 feet of silk, which is equivalent to one and a half horses of silk, and the free money for the national land is more than 15 million horses of silk.

Under the new tax regime. Every year, the country can collect more than 20 million stone millet and 25 million horses of silk. More than 1.8 million catties of cotton, if it is exchanged for money. The price of a stone of grain is now about 200 yuan, and a horse of silk is almost 1,000 yuan, so calculated, the tax revenue of the country in a year is about 30 million yuan, so calculated, compared with the original Kaihuang years, much more. After all, there were a large number of hidden fields and hidden households during the opening of the emperor's reign, and most of these fields were originally occupied by the Guanlong group. Not long ago, a nationwide census of land and population revealed a large number of household registrations that concealed their fields.

Whether it is the current tax reform or the old tax law, the tax revenue will be greatly increased.

In particular, after the reform, if the imperial court directly collects cash, it is more convenient than levying in kind, and if it is taxed by the mu, then there will be no situation where the poor cannot pay the tax, after all, it is levied by the mu, and only two stone millet, two zhang silk, and three taels of cotton are levied on one hundred mu of land. It is impossible to pay the exemption money of one and a half horses, after all, a hundred acres of land can produce at least more than 100 stone of grain.

However, when Su Wei read the emperor's plan, the more he looked at it, the more surprised he became. It turned out that in the emperor's plan, the tax of 30 million yuan a year was actually only the main tax. In other words, it's just land rent. There are still a lot of taxes in the new tax system, the most important of which is the commercial tax. Various industrial and commercial tax systems, customs duties, transaction taxes, business taxes, toll taxes, etc. However, these are taxes for merchants' shops, and they have little to do with ordinary people, and it can be seen that the emperor has great hopes for this aspect of taxation, and the original imperial court in this area is only two or three hundred thousand yuan a year, but now it may reach the scale of the main tax or even beyond.

The emperor's new tax system is even more ruthless, that is, heavy taxes are levied on salt, tea, wine, minerals, copper, iron, etc., especially salt, and it is planned to collect at least 10 million yuan of salt tax every year, and the total of salt and wine will also reach 10 million yuan. Nowadays, salt and tea are not taxed, and in the future, they will be taxed, and they are still heavily taxed, and a pound of salt may cost more than ten cents, which is two or three times more expensive than rice.

In short, in Yi Feng's plan, the imperial court should vigorously develop commerce, the main tax is two taxes, a year of tax about 30 million guan, and then the commercial tax, about 10 million to 20 million guan per year, supplemented by monopoly salt, tea, wine and other taxes, is expected to reach about 20 million, in short, in Yi Feng's new tax system, the total amount of taxes collected by the imperial court every year is about 60 million guan. This amount is six times more than the current financial revenue of the imperial court in a year.

Su Wei felt stunned when he saw it, this time the tax revenue was increased sixfold, and the people of the world had no choice but to rebel. But after taking a closer look at the plan, it seemed that something was wrong. The commercial tax is mainly aimed at merchants, and the ordinary people are not affected much, and the price may rise some, but it will certainly not rise unlimitedly, but it is the main tax, and there is no change in the total amount, but the tax of a small number of large landlords must be more, and the tax of the vast majority of ordinary people will be less, because now the world has increased due to the increase in population, the system of equal land has long been difficult to implement, and the vast majority of the people do not have 100 acres of land per ding. In this way, ordinary people pay taxes according to the acres of land, and their main tax falls. After all, more than half of the land in the world is actually in the hands of a small number of nobles and landlords about one-thousandth of the world, and the vast majority of the people actually have only a small amount of land, and even many of the people rely on tenant land for farming, and they are exploited by the landlords, but they still have to pay rent, which is very unfair. The landlords, who owned a large amount of land, were only paying a few thousand dollars a year according to the tax they paid.

The only salt tea and wine tax also has a lot of impact on ordinary people, especially this salt, you can not drink alcohol or tea, but you can't eat salt. A pound of salt costs ten yuan, a person has ten pounds of salt a year, and the salt money for a year is hundreds of yuan, and a family may have to pay thousands of yuan to buy salt, which is an additional big expense, compared with paying hundreds of dollars more than in the past. However, because it is included in the price of salt, it is not a compulsory levy, but it is still feasible, although this may be in favor of the rise of private salt, and the poor may not be able to afford salt, but if the imperial court can really receive tens of millions of salt taxes every year, this is not impossible.

Of course, according to the emperor's will, there will be a lot of taxes, such as real estate tax, vehicle and vessel tax, etc., but the main tax idea is still for the rich, and ordinary people will not be affected too much. It's like imposing heavy taxes on casinos, brothels and restaurants, so that the spending of the wealthy who go to these places will increase dramatically, but it will not affect the people who have no money to go to these places.

Yi Feng's tax reform plan was surprised by the crowd, but Yi Feng didn't think anything too surprising, the reform he came up with was actually some systems taken from the tax system of the Tang and Song dynasties, all of which were implemented systems. Just like the salt tax, there was no salt tax in the Sui Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, but since the Middle Tang Dynasty, the salt tax has become one of the main taxes of the Chinese dynasties for more than a thousand years, the annual salt tax in the Song Dynasty has reached 20 or 30 million, and the annual salt tax revenue in the Qing Dynasty has exceeded 12 million taels of silver, and at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the national salt tax revenue even accounted for more than 70 percent of the national fiscal revenue. The salt tax is actually a poll tax in disguise, because everyone has to eat salt, which cannot be replaced.

In short, Yifeng's new tax law has a core idea, that is, to reduce the tax expenses of ordinary people and collect money from those who have it. For example, the commercial tax, the original Sui Dynasty almost ignored this piece, and Yi Feng is to collect about one-third of the annual fiscal policy income from here, as for the salt tax, it is a supplement to the main tax after the land rent drops, even if the people who do not farm, he does not pay the field rent, but he still has to eat salt, and buying salt is equivalent to paying taxes.

Generally speaking, after the new tax system, the group of merchants, who used to make more money and pay less taxes, will now become the main body of paying taxes, while ordinary people pay taxes according to their fields, and ordinary farmers rent less if they have less land, and those landlords pay more taxes with more land. Just like the emperor's ruling ideas since his accession to the throne, suppress those nobles and wealthy families, and take care of ordinary people and small people.

At the end of the new tax system, there is a clause that the government and the people pay taxes together, whether they are officials or people, they have to pay taxes and taxes, and there are no exemptions, even temples and Taoist temples, and if you have land, you have to pay rent.

The imperial court can collect about 60 million yuan in cash every year, and then the imperial court will pay for the necessary materials such as grain, which will also become a part of the market. Of course, there is another important point, in the future, the imperial court can no longer conscript the people for free to do labor, and the people have already paid the exemption money. If the imperial court wanted to do the project, it would either contract directly to the merchants, or it would take the money out to recruit the people to work. It can be said that this is an additional amount of money than the original, but if you use the money to recruit people to work, it will definitely be much more convenient than the original conscription of ordinary people to serve, provided that the government has money.

"Finally, in addition to the commercial tax and salt tax, which must be paid to the central government, two-thirds of the two taxes levied by various localities, that is, land rent, are handed over to the central government, and one-third are retained by the local governments. One-third of this third is reserved for the counties, one-third to the prefectures, and one-third to the provinces. This is also another article in the new tax system that is different from the original tax system.

"Okay, now that you have all read the tax reform plan I have proposed, now you will talk about your views, I hope you will speak freely and express your opinions." Yi Feng slapped his face and said to the deacons who were pondering. (To be continued......)