Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1398 Public Revenue and Finance ([-])

The break came soon, and Liang Qiangdong sat in his own independent office, poured a cup of coffee, and slowly sipped it.Recently, the tigress at home seems to have heard about the ambiguous relationship between herself and the secretary, and forced herself to resign the Polish female secretary, making herself very embarrassed.No, after the Second Fort of the Qingdao Corps asked him for a class, he immediately ran over without saying a word, and gave the students a class willingly, really wanting to avoid the limelight.

In addition, when I come here to teach students, I can often come into contact with some lesser-known economic data, such as the fiscal revenue mentioned in the last class. These are all undisclosed data, not bureaucratic data. Who can know so clearly?Just inquire and make an estimate.Therefore, these are probably considered hidden benefits. After all, the executive committee treats these students as the future bureaucratic reserve team, and will not hide too much from them.

After drinking a cup of fragrant Xinhua Tacheng coffee, Liang Qiangdong washed the cup a little, then took the handouts, hurried into the next classroom, and explained the next lesson to the students.

"In the last class, I talked about non-tax revenue, which is one of the fiscal revenues of the government of the East Coast Republic of China. In this class, I will focus on tax revenue, which accounts for a large part of our current fiscal revenue structure and is particularly important. "Liang Qiangdong said clearly: "The tax system changes with the times and changes with the social and economic foundation. Our country has experienced two tax reforms in the past [-] years since its founding, and is currently preparing for the third tax reform. It is to constantly adapt to economic development and social changes. All of you here will be the pillars of the country in the future. You should have heard other teachers talk about these things, so I won’t talk too much nonsense.”

"China's current tax system is divided into seven categories of taxes, namely, deed tax, business tax, consumption tax, personal income tax, customs duty, movable property tax and real property tax, of which the latter two are the main tax categories, followed by tariff and consumption tax, personal income tax and business tax Again, the deed tax is much less." Liang Qiangdong walked up and down in front of the podium, reading from the script: "In the last fiscal year, the Chinese government collected a total of 2 yuan in deed tax, 34.1 yuan in business tax, 57 yuan in consumption tax, Personal income tax is 43.9 yuan, customs duty is 62.5 yuan, movable property tax is 97.1 yuan, and real property tax is 150.4 million yuan, totaling 447 million yuan. Of course, this data does not include special taxes temporarily imposed due to the war, but these temporary taxes are now suspended. There is no need to discuss it separately."

"In the new tax system contemplated by the Ministry of Finance, the part about personal income tax has been revised and confirmed, and it will be officially implemented in the next fiscal year. Among them, there will be an exemption amount for personal income tax, that is, the consumption of personal necessities and consumption of personal necessities must be removed from personal income. Family support expenses are collected in excess to maintain people’s living standards. Of course, this part is generally for industrial and commercial practitioners; as for farmers, personal income tax generally refers to public grain. Should this part be listed as a separate land tax? , is still discussed above, I tend to think that it should be listed separately, because large farms are gradually rising in China now, and the introduction of land tax can also lay a solid foundation for promoting the progressive tax system to regulate agricultural production in the future. That is to say, Classmates, we are going to have one more tax category on the east coast soon, of course, this does not mean that there will be more taxation, it just splits up one tax category.” What Liang Qiangdong said is not a secret, because the Ministry of Finance also I have consulted several times within the system, and there are not a few people who know about it.

In fact, when the Ministry of Finance introduced the progressive taxation system for the land tax, it was no surprise that domestic opposition was enormous, and it was mainly dominated by Li Wenchang's group of businessmen who were interested in large farms.They pointed out that once the land tax is formally implemented and adopts a progressive tax system, it will easily dampen the enthusiasm of investors, make them discouraged, and it will not be easy to absorb foreign investment and hinder industrial development, so it should be abolished.In addition, if the progressive tax system spreads to other types of taxes in the future, when people’s hard-earned money is taxed, who would dare to save, this will inevitably worsen the social atmosphere, and people will no longer be willing to work hard to get rich.

However, Li Wenchang and others opposed it, but there were not a few who supported it.Many people believe that although the progressive taxation system restrains the big landowners, it can also protect the development of small businesses. After all, in a society, small businesses still make up the majority. From this point of view, what is meant to suppress the development of industries is It is untenable—but no matter what, the design and promotion of the land tax and its accompanying progressive tax system will inevitably trigger fierce debates and struggles in the East Coast. The side that supports the land tax has the upper hand, because the members of the executive committee are more concerned about social stability.

"Let's now focus on the consumption tax that has increased more and more in recent years." Liang Qiangdong stood in front of the blackboard, wrote these three big words, and said: "Actually, the consumption tax in the old continent at this time has already Quite common, such as carriage tax, valet tax, window tax, wine tax, etc. In our country’s consumption tax, in order to stabilize inflation and stabilize people’s living standards, many consumer goods were actually tax-free. With development, more and more commodities are currently included in the taxable objects.”

"Currently in our country, the taxed consumer goods include wine, medicine, sugar, spices, coffee, cocoa, tea, tobacco, leather, watches, handicrafts, etc. Among them, alcohol accounts for the largest proportion, almost more than half, which is also scary. (How much people on the east coast love to drink...), followed by tobacco, sucrose, and spices, which account for the vast majority. Milk, fruits and vegetables, grains, salt, briquettes, lights, ordinary cloth, cheap wood and other daily necessities are not taxed by the government. Compared with the old continent, this is a great good governance. Although a large part of the tax source has been lost, it has won the hearts of the people. , which seems to be more important."

In fact, the collection of consumption tax has always been a mess in the east coast.Without him, the collection cost is too high and the difficulty is too great. In addition, many trading activities occur in non-market places, so it cannot be collected at all.Therefore, the East Coast taxation department basically can only collect in the wholesale link, that is, collect consumption tax on the wholesalers, and then let them pass this part of the tax on to the price, that is, collect tax in an indirect way.

The advantage of this kind of tax is that it is convenient to collect and the cost is low. It will not let the state raise a large group of tax collectors to wander around, and it will concentrate more risks on the wholesalers. If the goods are sold, then the tax is paid in vain, and the common people do not consume or pay taxes, so they do not suffer.Of course, this method of tax collection will still result in a large number of omissions and under-collection, but there is no way. We have tried our best. Tax collection has been a problem for 2000 years. impossible!

"After talking about the consumption tax, what should I say next? Well, please turn to the last page of the handout and look at the new tax that is planned to be introduced in the third tax reform - stamp duty. As for other personal income tax, business tax, customs duties and so on, I'll tell you about it later." Liang Qiangdong lighted a pipe for himself without paying attention to the image, then smiled and said: "The invention of stamp duty started in the United Provinces 41 years ago. It is a kind of behavioral tax. Its collection method is stamping, hence the name stamp duty. Now our East Coast Republic of China is also thinking of collecting this kind of tax. In order to respect the invention of the Dutch, it is also named stamp duty.”

"Stamp duty is a tax levied on contracts, books, documents, and certificates of all property and rights relations. In fact, it is very suitable for a country like ours with relatively developed transportation and active business activities. How painful it will be, but because the scope of taxation is very wide, the government’s income will not be low, so it is indeed a good source of taxation.” Liang Qiangdong said: “This method of tax collection is simple and easy, the government only needs to print tax stamps, and any Taxpayers are free to purchase, and then stick it in transactions and sign documents. Isn’t it very simple? In the process of collecting this tax, the government basically has no other expenses except for printing fees and regular inspection fees, but However, the income has actually increased, and it is not a lot, so this kind of tax is called a good tax. The Dutch are indeed experts in collecting money, admiration!"

Liang Qiangdong's words caused a burst of laughter from the students.Indeed, low cost and high income are the characteristics of stamp duty, and it is unreasonable not to collect it.Moreover, what the students did not take into account was that after the stamp duty and the monopoly of special commodities were rolled out, the government, which has been supplemented with financial resources, can almost gradually get rid of its dependence on movable property tax and real property tax. It's too discordant, and we must find a way to solve it.Of course, considering that the two taxes add up to more than 247 million yuan, there is no substitute for them in the short term, but it is still possible to reduce the tax rate and alleviate the conflicts among the people.Even, if the government's finances are relatively abundant, then it is not impossible to cancel the chattel tax first. Everything depends on the later development.

After talking about the new tax type of stamp duty, Liang Qiangdong took the opportunity to give some examples, most of which are the specific examples and methods in the tax collection process of the United Provinces and Denmark, two countries that implemented stamp duty (France also officially started to levy stamp duty in 1665). After everyone had a rough understanding, he turned to talk about business tax, because this tax has undergone some adjustments in this tax reform.

"Students, you should pay attention to the business tax I will talk about below. In the third tax reform, this tax is divided into two types: national tax and local tax, that is, the central and local (county-level) two levels of government tax enterprises and individuals at the same time. Levy business tax. Among them, the business tax of legal persons, except for some special industries supported by the government, must be taxed regardless of the income; the personal business tax is limited to more than ten categories announced by the government, such as lending, selling, manufacturing, and warehousing Logistics, printing, hotel catering, intermediary and other industries can be exempted if the annual turnover is less than 1000 yuan.” Liang Qiangdong exhaled two smoke rings, and said unhurriedly: “The tax rate of business tax has also been slightly adjusted. It is 5% regardless of whether it is an enterprise or an individual. Now it is different. In the new business tax, the national tax is 3.6% for some legal persons and 2.8% for individuals. There is no unified opinion on the local tax. I predict that it will probably be Decentralize the power to local governments to set their own business tax rates, but there should be an upper limit. I think legal persons should not exceed 2%, and individuals should not exceed 1.6%, so as not to bring unnecessary costs to everyone's business activities. It is difficult, which is not in line with the original intention of the government."

Sales tax is actually no stranger to everyone in the Old Continent at this time.Taking China at this time as an example, the dental tax levied on dental firms, the pawn tax levied on pawnbrokers, etc. are all types of business tax, but they are not collected across the industry like the East Coast.However, this does not mean that their tax system is lighter than that of the East Coast. In fact, it is not the case. They have a lot of miscellaneous taxes, and the corporate or personal tax burden is much heavier than that of the East Coast.

It is also worth mentioning that in this tax reform, local governments have actually partially strengthened their fiscal rights.For example, a lot of public property income and administrative income are classified into the local finance, and now a part of the business tax is also divided into the local tax. Even an inland agricultural county that is not very rich can collect tens of thousands of yuan a year from it. And as the population increases, this number will gradually increase.

In this way, the local government can do many things. The construction of local water conservancy facilities, the planning of roads, the improvement of sanitation conditions, the dredging of rivers, the development of agriculture, the promotion of education, and the training of militias are basically the same. A lot of new investment can be obtained, which is of great benefit to the future of the country—and the East Coast Republic of China, after clarifying the tax sources of the local and central governments, is becoming more and more like a modern country, which is what everyone wants to see .

After talking about this, Liang Qiangdong talked about the deed tax, personal income tax, movable property tax and real property tax, because these taxes did not change in the third tax reform, so he did not focus on it, but focused on tariffs superior.In fact, this is quite normal, because the Ministry of Finance has decided to re-update the list of commodities subject to import and export duties starting from the next fiscal year. It is expected that the number of commodities subject to customs duties will increase significantly, which seems to indicate that Changes in the economic policy on the east coast - In the past, materials were scarce and a large number of export commodities were needed, so many commodities were exempted from tariffs. However, with the development of society and economy, many commodities are no longer so scarce, so the recovery plan is levied Export tariffs are a natural thing. After all, this is an act that can greatly increase government revenue, so why not do it?

(End of this chapter)