Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1779 Aftermath and tax collection

Liang Xinhu came to Guangzhou as an ordinary veteran who was unknown, and almost no one in the naturalized people knew him except the staff of the general affairs department of the city government who were in charge of guarding the elders.Over the years, he has been in charge of the work of the circuit court. He toured the land of Hainan step by step every month, and held court cases in counties or towns.

Cases vary in size, from civil disputes caused by children urinating on firewood piles to criminal cases of robbery and murder. The plot is not too complicated, and he, a law graduate who was born in a major, can't handle it. It's difficult.

However, now in Guangzhou, the complexity of the case has increased exponentially.The requirements of the Ministry of Justice and Liu Xiang are the same, through the trial of the case, the "legal spirit" of the Senate will be publicized, especially the civil and commercial law.

"The ancient Chinese law is very backward in terms of civil and commercial law," Liu Xiang said, "that's why we have so many businessmen' faith" myths, but there are sayings like "no profiteering, no business". As far as our social practice is concerned, Looking at it, the merchants in this time and space are also a complex group, neither too good nor too bad. However, they are generally "rule-speaking" and have a certain "legal awareness". A group with a concept of the rule of law. But the government has suppressed and plundered for many years, disregarded the interests of businessmen and the dangerous social environment, this so-called concept of the rule of law also needs to be quoted.”

"So to teach them the law..."

"That's right." Liu Xiang nodded, "Cleaning up the teeth and doing good things, say it's big or small. But it's in line with the promotion of our spirit of ruling the country by law and showing off our meticulous and effective governance techniques—and these are in the past. The traditional feudal government couldn't do it."

"it is good."

"However, I also have concerns. One is that the dental firm has too many bad debts, and I am afraid that even if the property is confiscated, it will not be able to cover their debts; the other is that the merchants take the opportunity to retaliate or profit, and fabricate the facts-the dental firm is not a good person, and the merchant is not a good lord. We can’t give citizens the idea that we’re fixing for the sake of fixing.”

"I completely agree with this." Liang Xinhu said, "It's actually not difficult. I plan to implement three principles in the entire aftermath: First, whoever makes the claim must provide evidence. Anyone who claims that the dental firm owes the due payment or needs to return the goods must submit a statement. Sufficient evidence, no evidence is not counted; second, the timeliness can only be traced back to two years, counting from the time we entered the city. If it is more than two years, we will not ask questions, so as not to be entangled in the past; third, insist that this is a civil and commercial economy If there are indeed criminal cases, they will be handed over to the police station for handling. The aftermath will not be dealt with."

"Very good." Liu Xiang nodded, "However, what if the debts are not paid off after the liquidation?"

There is another layer of meaning hidden in his words: the deficit is too big, and we can't get much by ourselves.

Guangzhou's financial expenditure can be counted on to make a fortune by copying the house.

But this wealth must be made in a secret way, and the masses must be satisfied, and they cannot tell nonsense with their eyes open-that kind of food is too ugly.

Liang Xinhu naturally understood what he meant, he smiled and said, "Okay, you're doing a civil servant interview, since that's the case, I'll explain it in more detail."

The specific measure is to insist on one case per household, and not make a unified account.Zhang San’s debts will be paid off with Zhang San’s property, and Li Si’s property will not be embezzled; for serious deficits and insolvency, a proportional settlement system will be adopted; finally, an unlimited liability recovery system will be adopted.

"...Daming does not have the concept of limited liability, and our use of unlimited liability recovery is also in line with customary law. Moreover, from the perspective of judicial practice, most businessmen in this time and space are regardless of family business. It is necessary to find out what is family private property and what is It is almost impossible for corporate property. What’s more, their property is very little cash, and most of them are converted into private real estate such as land and houses. It is too cheap for them to engage in limited liability. Although limited liability companies are the future trend, it is impossible to do it now There's no need to do it."

After Liang Xinhu finished speaking, he added: "I've looked at the situation these days and feel that our law-enforcement propaganda is not enough."

The greatest fear of the Cantonese natives, especially the common gentry and businessmen, is that they are ignorant of the laws and practices of the Senate. They don't know what the Senate wants to do and why they do such things.

Even though they have long known that Australians believe in the law, they are confused about how to do it and whether they will violate taboos, which can easily cause various unnecessary misunderstandings.If someone from a certain force is arrested while performing official duties, it is not aimed at this force, this group, or this ethnic group. It is just that this person has violated the law. I didn’t understand why I would be punished for such a trivial or natural thing in Ming Dynasty, so I made up my mind, “Is it because the Senate wants to kill me?”, “Is it because I accidentally offended a certain elder?”, etc. Wait, it is likely to turn into escape or even resistance in the end.

"A few days ago, we banned the tooth shop and arrested the leaders who stormed the Haiyang Guild Hall—Director Lin and Ju Ju told me something about the situation: the Chaoshan merchants in the city are now arrogant. There is a sense of bullying in the transactions of the merchants. Obviously, the Chaoshan merchants will be wrong, thinking that we will fight with each other as in the past. So my opinion is that I want to explain the laws of the Senate to the natives. The best way is to print a batch of pamphlets similar to the "Basic Law" and distribute them at a low price or free of charge. They describe the most basic laws of the Senate in the simplest and most understandable terms, such as any citizen under the Senate What kind of power, freedom, and welfare do you enjoy, and what things cannot be violated, such as insulting others, enslaving others, and illegally imprisoning others. There are also the conceptual role of the police and the way of law enforcement, how the Senate generally operates as a political system, etc., so that the natives can A general understanding of the differences between the Senate and the Ming Dynasty, as well as their practices, even if you don’t understand the laws, at least you can’t do anything in your mind, and it will play an important role in stabilizing the people’s hearts and implementing the national policy of the Senate.”

"You make a lot of sense. I remember that we compiled similar pamphlets in Hainan..."

"It was compiled by our Law Club. But it is still too simple. Guangzhou is a big city, and the situation is much more complicated. I think it should be revised and supplemented. If you agree, I will start working on it in the past few days."

"Okay, I'll arrange for mass printing and distribution after you compile it."

Liu Xiang discussed some specific details with Liang Xinhu before ending the meeting, and then Liu Xiang held a small meeting with Lin Baiguang, Zheng Shangjie and others non-stop to discuss the holding of the first general meeting of the Guangzhou City Federation of Industry and Commerce.

Liu Xiang was in a hurry to hold the meeting, not only to find out the old background of Guangzhou's economic aggregate, but also for the purpose of taxation.

They haven't been in the city for a long time now, and a lot of waste is waiting to be done.Administrative and staffing costs are on the rise.Right now, the municipal government is still supported by two major revenue streams: "start-up fee" and "fiscal return".With the successive development of various projects, the recruitment of local public officials and solving the financial burden as soon as possible have become Liu Xiang's top priority.

It is a temporary measure to "scrape family wealth" by attacking various old forces in the city, and it cannot last.

But tax collection is a systematic project, and the efficient tax extraction mechanism in modern society depends on modern social management system and sufficient statistical data.It has been argued that the origin of modern statistics was the government's desire to squeeze money.

But now, what Daming left for them is only some vague and chaotic statistical data. The statistical items are unscientific and there are many errors in the data, so that Liu Xiang dare not use it as a basis for taxation.

As for the original tax collection system in Guangzhou, it was mainly agricultural tax.Originally, Guangzhou was a commercial city, and commercial tax should be the main source of income. However, whether it is tax type, tax rate or collection method, it is very backward.The burden is even more uneven. Generally speaking, the government's collection and management of business taxes is very poor, the types of taxes are changed chaotically, and the tax rates are arbitrary.Excessive taxation and extortion have caused public dissatisfaction, and business travel is not good.The private sector benefits, but the public sector receives little.The only thing that can really get a large amount of income is the tariff of maritime trade.

Now Liu Xiang wants to search for local financial resources as soon as possible, so he has to restore taxation as soon as possible.Industrial and commercial registration is the first step. Through the issuance of business licenses, they now have a rough idea of ​​how many industrial and commercial households there are in Guangzhou. Through their registered industries, business items, employees, and store sizes, they have a preliminary grasp of the scale of industrial and commercial businesses.

But that alone is not enough to create a modern tax, because the data is raw, not aggregated and collated.What's more, these industrial and commercial households do not have an accounting system that meets modern accounting standards.Considering the hardware level and personnel quality of the Senate itself, it is impossible to adopt a too modern collection model.Therefore, Liu Xiang discussed with Chen Ce from Caishuikou and decided to walk on two legs.

One leg is to focus on the rectification of relatively clear import and export tariffs and introduce the tax system of the Senate.Tariffs are the bulk of commercial taxes in Guangzhou, and the benefits of rectification and regulation will be huge.And without spending too much manpower and time.

The other leg is to use the existing guild system of various industries-almost all the slightly larger industries in Guangzhou have "public offices", which are actually guilds.Taxes are apportioned through guilds.This makes collection and management easier.Especially without the need for a large number of tax collectors.Although there are relatively large side effects, it is still a method that can collect taxes quickly under the current circumstances.

"In fact, there are still many small tax sources that we can explore. Such as deed tax, stamp duty and so on."

(End of this chapter)