My life skills in Daming Liver

"Jiang Gan, what are you talking about?!"

Fan Fajia had already called Jiang Gan by his first name, and he said to Su Ze with sweat on his face:

"Grand Governor, you are disciplining your subordinates because of your humble position. Please forgive me, Grand Governor!"

"This Jiang Gan has been talking nonsense since he started to watch politics. He says strange things all day long."

Su Ze looked at Jiang Gan and said, "Then how do you think taxes should be collected?"

Hearing that Su Ze was willing to listen to him, Jiang Gan immediately said:

"Of course it's a direct tax! A direct tax on property!"

"If a family has ten thousand gold, they will levy a thousand gold a year! The rich will be levied more, and the poor will be levied less. This is the fairest way!"

Jiang Gan spoke his thoughts loudly.

Fan Fajia was about to faint with anger.

This Jiang Gan was ranked fifteenth in the imperial examination. Fan Fajia was originally looking forward to him. The officials of the Customs and Excise Department were basically promoted from the officials of the Customs and Excise Department where Fang Wanghai was at that time. Many of them are at the lowest level. It started as an official.

Although they are still very good in terms of business capabilities, their cultural level is still low.

There is nothing that can be done about it. People who work in finance tend to focus more on business, but have little understanding of politics.

Originally, Fan Fajia hoped that Jiang Qian could stay in the Customs and Excise Department after the government ended and increase the average political and cultural level of the Customs and Excise Department.

Unexpectedly, when Jiang came to the Customs and Excise Department, he talked nonsense all day long and did not study the business of Customs and Excise.

Fan Fajia was so angry that he wanted to kick him out immediately.

Su Ze was a little disappointed. Jiang Gan's statement was simple and crude, and it could be said that it was quite unfeasible.

Tax based on assets? How to collect this?

Who will report their assets honestly?

Su Ze asked: "But will those rich people pay taxes obediently?"

Jiang Gan said confidently: "Why not! Grand Governor, we can use the Han Dynasty's "Information Order". As long as the people resolutely expose these rich people for hiding their property, they can get a part of the taxes! It's not just those who hide their property. You have to pay one-tenth of the tax! Instead, you have to pay half the tax!”

Fan Fajia was desperate now. Although he had never read history books, he also knew that Jiang Gan's approach was pure nonsense. It didn't take long for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to abolish it. If he really did this, Southeast Asia would collapse in a few days. .

Su Ze did not rebuke Jiang Gan. He was a passionate young man who realized the problem but failed to come up with a good solution.

Su Ze didn't say anything, and Fan Fajia became even more angry. He almost pointed at Jiang Gan and cursed.

Jiang Gan also regretted it at this time. As a Jinshi of Guanzheng, he was not afraid of offending Fan Fajia. If that didn't work, he would just change to another Si Guanzheng.

But if he offends Su Ze, the governor of the southeast, he doesn't know if his future will be affected.

Su Ze said: "The theory of fairness you mentioned before is quite interesting. Can you tell me why it is fair to tax property?"

"When I return to the Grand Governor, we tax the circulation of goods. That means the large number of ordinary people will support the government, and the small number of wealthy businessmen will pay less."

"This is not even as fair as the previous Ming Dynasty, where taxes were levied based on the number of acres."

Fan Fajia is a firm believer in business. He immediately said:

"These businessmen neither steal nor rob. As long as they operate in compliance with the law and work hard to get rich, do they have to pay more taxes just because they have money? Our government is not a bandit who only picks out rich people to rob?"

Not discussing specific issues such as tax collection, but debating the pragmatic concept of "fairness" would fall into the "professional field" of political scholars like Jiang Qian.

"Do you get rich by hard work? Are the hired workers who work ten hours a day in the workshops not industrious? Are the farmers who work in the fields day and night not industrious?"

Fan Fajia was speechless by his subordinates.

Jiang Gan continued: "Which of these rich people's commodities are produced by themselves? Which of them are consumed by themselves?"

"The success of these people depends on the technology shared by the governor, the hard-working employees in the workshop, and the stable market in the southeast."

"What does this have to do with whether they are hardworking or not?"

Fan Fajia knew that on the issue of "fairness", he could never argue with his subordinate.

He could only use what he was best at to retort: ​​"That's it, if you use your method to tax the rich, it will inevitably lead to traitors everywhere. Everyone will not think about doing things well, but will think of ways to do it everywhere. Report and expose others.”

"Isn't your method used to cause trouble in our southeast?"

Jiang Gan's face turned red when he talked about specific matters. Obviously, the problem Fan Fajia mentioned also existed. How to reasonably tax the rich was a problem that he, a scholar of political integrity, could not solve.

As an old tax collector who has followed Fang Wanghai since the Suzhou Customs Department, Fan Fajia understands the difficulties of taxing the rich.

Not to mention directly taxing property, even with the current currency tariffs, large workshop owners have more tax evasion methods than small and medium-sized workshop owners.

This has nothing to do with the current official governance in the southeast, but simply the richer the people, the more people will help them with advice.

For example, the Xu family in Songjiang has a dedicated accountant and lawyer to deal with tax inspections by the government.

Another example is Yu Zongyuan in Hangzhou. His business rarely involves industry. When he invests, the return he gets is often ten times or even a hundred times. The government has no laws at all to tax the returns he gets from his investment. The stamp duty is not enough to fill the gap between the young master's teeth.

As for the Xu family in Songjiang and the Yu family in Hangzhou, they are already wealthy businessmen who are quite cooperative with the government. Yu Zongyuan can even be said to be a model businessman. This time, he was the most active subscriber for the railway workers' homestead, and he often generously invested in various projects on weekdays. Government construction projects.

Jiang Gan was defeated, but Su Ze said:

"Actually, what Jiang Gan said makes sense. Tax fairness is indeed very important."

Fan Fajia, who was originally proud of refuting Jiang Gan, was stunned, and even Fang Wanghai was stunned.

They all looked at Su Ze.

Su Ze said:

"Of course, let's forget about the method of "Complaint Order". We in the southeast are not bandits, and we cannot use this method to collect taxes."

Fan Fajia breathed a sigh of relief, but heard Su Ze say:

“We can give it a try using property tax.”

Jiang Gan was overjoyed and looked at Su Ze with incredible eyes.

He originally just wanted to perform well in front of Su Ze, hoping that Su Ze would remember him.

He never thought that Su Ze would support his crazy idea.

Fang Wanghai thought for a moment and said, "But how will this property tax be collected?"

Su Ze said with a smile: "It is divided into two steps. The first is to tax the annual income on a yearly basis and let the large households declare their income. The Ministry of Accounts only needs to conduct spot checks on the accounts of some large households. If Penalties for tax evasion will be doubled.”

Income?

Those present were all professional bureaucrats from the Ministry of Household Affairs, and they quickly realized the difference between this “income” and the total amount of property.

If the total amount of property is taxed every year, then the assets of a rich person must be counted every year. It is difficult for even ordinary rich people to do it, let alone the Ministry of Household Affairs.

This is not subjective tax evasion, but real estate such as land and workshops. It is not easy to convert it into money.

But the income is different. This is the total income obtained in a year. This is clearly recorded in the account book, and it is the money obtained.

It is not feasible to tax total property every year, but taxing income seems to be more feasible?

Moreover, Su Ze's method is not to ask the Ministry of Household Affairs to check the income of all rich people, but to let them pay taxes themselves, but impose heavier penalties for tax evasion.

The cost of such collection is not high. As long as a few examples are caught a year, it can always deter wealthy businessmen who want to evade taxes.

Fan Fajia and Jiang Qian thought along Su Ze's train of thought and realized that this was actually a feasible method.

Su Ze said again:

"The second is even simpler. When a wealthy person dies, his descendants inherit his property and levy an inheritance tax."

"This is a tax on all the assets of this person. If the descendants want to inherit the property, they must pay this tax."

Jiang Gan immediately said: "That's wonderful! You are worthy of being the governor!"

Even Fan Fajia felt that Su Ze's method seemed feasible.

When taxing the estate of a dead person, some people will definitely find ways to evade the tax. However, land and workshops, things that are fixed on the land, must be transferred by the government to confirm the rights when they are inherited. At this time, levying inheritance tax is an excellent way. .

Since death only occurs once, taxing all a person's assets at the time of death is precisely a reflection of fairness.

In order to get the ancestral property recognized by the government, the descendants will definitely pay taxes obediently. This method can be said to be quite feasible.

Fan Fajia looked at Su Ze and then secretly looked at Jiang Qian.

Could it be that Jiang Gan knew the Governor?

Could it be that such a complete taxation plan was thought up by the Grand Governor on the spur of the moment?

Isn't this too scary?

No, this must have been something the Governor had already thought about, and Jiang Gan just brought it up at this time.

So when you talk about levying a property tax, is this what the Governor himself means? Did you just instruct Jiang Gan to do this?

Fan Fajia thought a lot and broke into a cold sweat. He was so opposed to the collection of property taxes before. Didn't he offend the governor?

Su Ze changed the subject and said:

"However, the issue of taxation is something that will be discussed by the Constitutional Convention. The matter of property tax will have to wait until the Constitutional Convention next year to discuss it."

"On the contrary, the Ministry of Revenue can come up with a solution first, and we can discuss it carefully at next year's Constitutional Convention."

Fang Wanghai and Fan Fajia quickly said yes, but Fan Fajia was even more certain that this must have been planned by Governor Su!

With Su Ze's character, everything he did was based on planning. Jiang Qian was the chess piece that Su Ze threw out to test the Hubu's opinion.

And now Su Ze has asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to formulate a method, which is to build momentum for the levy of property tax for next year's Constitutional Convention and leave the entire issue to the Southeast for discussion.

Fan Fajia could imagine how huge a storm such an issue would cause in the southeast and how many people would discuss this issue in newspapers.

And how lively the Constitutional Convention next year will be.

He is indeed a great governor! It is indeed a far-reaching plan!

Su Ze said: "The Ministry of Household Affairs can select and deploy some elites to formulate ways to collect property taxes."

Fan Fajia immediately said: "Don't worry, Commander-in-Chief, my subordinates will definitely mobilize the elites from the Household Department to study how to collect this property tax."

Fan Fajia then said: "Jiang Gan, go back and sort out the articles about the fairness of the tax system, and then I will give you a lecture on the fairness of property tax."

Jiang Gan was overjoyed. In the southeast, everyone knew that they had to do something to get promoted.

And the ones that are most likely to accomplish things are naturally the new departments.

Not to mention property tax, which is not as simple as setting up a new department, but adjusting national taxation, which can be said to be a major event related to the entire southeast!

In the same year as Jiang Qian, Gu Xiancheng, Tang Xianzu and others are now considered leaders of the younger generation.

Everyone knows that for them, the selection examination in a year's time is no longer a problem. Sooner or later, they will enter the ranks of important ministers.

Naturally, they rely on working in new departments.

Now Jiang Gan has also been named to prepare for the collection of property tax. If this is done, it will be famous all over the world.

Although in the eyes of the rich in the world, Jiang Gan was going to be cut to pieces, Jiang Gan didn't care at all.

He was originally born into a poor family, and his family did not have much property.

What happened to paying taxes? Inheritance tax must also be paid upon death!

The only things in this world that are inevitable are death and taxes!

Jiang Gan quickly bowed to Su Ze, Fang Wanghai and Fan Fajia:

"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief! Thank you, Prime Minister Fang Ji! Thank you, Commander Fan!"

Su Ze said happily: "Seeing a young man like you, we have a successor for our career!"

Fan Fajia and Jiang Gan were both stunned. Su Ze actually gave such a high evaluation?

Everyone looked at Jiang Gan with completely different eyes.

At this time, the Southeast Cabinet received important information from the North.