The sudden parachute landing of the tax department not only interrupted the government's interpretation of the law, but also sucked the fuel out of the cauldron, leaving the officials feeling somewhat at a loss.
They really did not expect that such a change would occur. Although they all knew that the imperial court had ordered that a tax department would be established in Hezhong Prefecture, they all predicted that the tax department would not arrive until next year at the earliest and would not be able to operate until the year after.
When I got up, I never imagined that it would be the end of this year and how could the efficiency of the imperial court become so high.
The battle over the purchase tax is essentially a power game between the government and the imperial court. This is also the first time that the government has directly challenged the imperial court's decree. Although this is not the first time they have had conflicts, they have always had conflicts in the past.
Under Yuan Jiang's operation, the government chose to turn "crisis" into "opportunity" and use the imperial court's decree to implement the government's new policy.
For example, Salt Debt was born out of the dispute between the two.
But this method always makes officials feel aggrieved. Although they have not lost much in terms of political performance, in terms of power, they feel that they have been suppressed by the imperial court, but they cannot counterattack the imperial court.
Holding back a sense of resentment.
However, the imperial court's further aggression made them feel that there was no need to endure this anymore.
So they chose to fight back by buying taxes.
But this day was not as good as others' calculations. The arrival of the tax department directly caused their counterattack to be aborted.
The fundamental reason is that they have lost the power to collect tax.
this!
It's really embarrassing.
The government has no right to decide whether to implement the puma tax, so how can it argue with the imperial court? The key tax department directly stated that they want to abolish the puma tax. Regardless of whether they did it intentionally or not, this decision will definitely be beneficial to the imperial court.
.
Because the imperial court wanted to ban the purchase tax, but they didn't agree.
In addition, Chen Ming's attitude made the officials feel very uncomfortable. They believed that Chen Ming, like the public security bureaucracy, did not belong to the entire bureaucracy and was relatively independent.
If this is true, it would be a disaster.
However, everything in the officialdom is based on interpersonal relationships, so they immediately conducted an investigation on Chen Ming to see which faction this person belonged to.
It would be okay if I didn't check it out, but I would be even more stunned if I checked it out.
It turns out that Chen Ming was a warehouse manager in the Neizangtreasury, specializing in serving the emperor's private money. He was recently promoted to tax envoy and had nothing to do with the entire bureaucracy.
This person doesn't belong to any faction, that is, he belongs to the emperor.
It seems that the tax department is directly subordinate to the emperor, which is by no means groundless.
And Chen Ming seemed to really not intend to get close to them, or even to establish a friendship with them as colleagues. He directly released the official documents from the court and immediately took over the tax collection power of Hezhong Prefecture.
The first thing Chen Ming has to do is to resolve the imminent lawsuit over the purchase tax. After all, he has already taken over the power in this area.
He ignored the quarrel between the government and the imperial court, directly hired Lu Bangxing, and appealed to the imperial court with a piece of paper, expressing his dissatisfaction with the imperial court's previous decision, which meant that those people were exempted from tax.
The reason is that now that the government has changed people, all tax collection matters are now under the control of our tax department, and our tax department believes that the imperial court's decision is unfair, so we need to appeal.
Of course the imperial court happily accepted it.
In fact, whether everyone believes in the imperial court's judgment is not the key. It is impossible for every judgment to convince everyone. The key is whether everyone accepts the entire process of the public prosecutor, prosecutor and law.
For example, if the government is dissatisfied and chooses to continue the appeal, even if the appeal is successful and Zhang Fei's judgment is overturned, Zhang Fei is very supportive, because what Zhang Fei pursues is not to keep his word, but to hope that everyone will use the public prosecutor's procedure to solve the problem.
In fact, the government took the right path this time. This was indeed what Zhang Fei feared the most. He repeatedly made sure not to settle old accounts because he was also worried that this would happen. But unfortunately, it failed in the end.
Now that the Taxation Department is willing to appeal to the Royal Court to resolve disputes, the Royal Court will certainly be willing to give you another chance.
After learning about this incident, the procuratorate also took the opportunity to disgust the government and directly publicly stated that it would withdraw the lawsuit against the government and contact the Department of Taxation directly.
On the surface, withdrawing the lawsuit against the government seems to be a good thing for the government, but in fact, it tells everyone that the government has lost this power and there is no point in competing with the government.
They are all outdated, and the Tax Department is the upstart in Hezhong Prefecture.
This made Wei Yingfang and the others very angry.
Are we no longer even qualified to be sued?
Is there any more royal method?
But the fact is that the public security organs, prosecutors, and courts no longer interact with the government, and instead all choose to hand over to the Department of Taxation.
Imperial Court.
"Tax Commissioner Chen, please take a seat."
"Thank you."
Chen Ming bowed his hands and sat down.
Zhang Fei looked at Chen Ming and saw that this guy had a serious face, which was very similar to Li He from the Capital Taxation Department. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Are all the people in your Taxation Department so unsmiling?"
Chen Ming was stunned for a moment, then forced out a smile and responded to Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei couldn't bear to tease him anymore, his expression changed, and he said seriously: "I'm really sorry, this plan can't keep up with the changes, so you have to arrive early. I don't know how well prepared you are?"
Chen Ming said truthfully: "There is still some lack of preparation now. The information we have at the moment can only temporarily deter them. But fortunately, taxation will start next year. We still have at least half a year, so there should be nothing."
questionable."
"wrong."
Zhang Fei shook his head and said: "Strictly speaking, you still have almost a year to prepare."
Chen Ming looked at Zhang Fei doubtfully.
Zhang Fei took out a copy, handed it to Chen Ming, and explained: "In the past, the government's tax collection method was to use private forces as much as possible. For example, this purchase tax is to use businessmen and wealthy people to collect taxes, and
For example, the two taxes are collected by the head of household in the village, and this obviously does not apply to the tax department.
The Taxation Department collects taxes through independent declarations. If they were collected separately, it would be impossible to achieve this with the human and material resources of the Taxation Department. At the beginning, many ministers were not optimistic about the independent declaration of tax exemptions in the capital.
In the end, it was barely completed, and it took several months, so I worked out a system for the tax department to unify taxes.
Of course, this entire tax system must be coordinated with the Service Exemption Law, because the existence of the Service Exemption Law not only allows taxes to be determined according to different incomes, but also exempts all people from labor and military service.
Turn into money.
Based on these two points, all taxes can be combined into one and each family pays taxes according to their different incomes each year."
Chen Ming did not question Zhang Fei's proposition, because before he came, Zhao Xu told him that everything would be obeyed by Zhang Fei and he would just implement it. So he just asked: "So the Taxation Department is short of manpower.
Did the government propose this method?”
"Yes."
Zhang Fei nodded.
In fact, Zhang Fei had already written to Zhao Xu about this idea of unifying taxes. He just said that the specific tax rate had not been calculated at that time, but he won Zhao Xu's approval.
Because this self-declaration is very troublesome to review, you must know that most people are illiterate, and you have to send people to help them fill in the tax returns. If you have to check two or three types of taxes and fill in the returns three or four times every year, how can you have so much manpower?
The material resources and the tax department are working all year round, so they may not be able to do it, and the key people do not have such a lot of energy.
Unifying all taxes into one and formulating different tax rates based on different incomes is very consistent with the tax collection method of the Taxation Department.
People only need to declare once.
They also only need to investigate one tax.
But if you look at it from a deeper perspective, it is actually to collect taxes from those wealthy households, and this is entirely due to Wang Anshi's exemption law.
Because Wang Anshi's exemption law included everyone, including officials, monks and Taoists, female households, etc. Although it did not completely abolish their privileges, it was very important to give them taxes.
But this is really the first one, and the second is that the exemption tax is determined based on the difference in income. When the taxes are unified, this attribute will be added to all taxes, and the rich will have to pay more money.
These are all legal basis.
If there was no exemption law, Zhang Fei would not be able to do this. The imperial court must abide by the law.
Chen Ming asked again: "Then what do we need to pay attention to?"
"Check taxes."
Zhang Fei answered simply and clearly: "There will definitely still be people who evade taxes, but now it is different from before. Now it depends on the evidence. The tax department must get conclusive evidence before it can proceed with the lawsuit.
Of course, at that time I will promulgate new penalties for tax evasion, cancel some tortures, and then increase fines. As for the fines, the tax department and the finance department will divide the fines 70-70, and the government only needs to keep 30 percent, and the rest will go to your tax department."
Chen Mingdao: "This is used to motivate those people to check taxes."
Zhang Fei's eyes flashed with praise, then he nodded with a smile.
Chen Mingdao: "Then they will definitely check the taxes of the rich."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "I didn't say that, and I suggest you don't say that either."
Chen Ming nodded in understanding and said: "We have summoned the tax collectors from Hezhong Prefecture who are proficient in various tax collection methods. Tax inspections should not be a problem, but in the face of these wealthy people and big landowners, what should we do?
How to enforce the law.”
Zhang Fei said: "The police department has trained a force of 500 fully armed elite soldiers for the Taxation Department. When your Taxation Department officially opens, the police department will transfer these elite soldiers to the Taxation Department. This elite force is enough
Destroy any large farm in Hezhong Prefecture. There is only one type of people you need to pay attention to, and you must report to me first before you can decide whether to take action."
Chen Mingdao: "What kind of people?"
Zhang Fei said: "Even for those general families, their soldiers are experienced in many battles. At present, the tax department may not be able to defeat them, but people like them can be solved through political means. In short,
When facing hard things, use softness to overcome hardness; when facing soft things, use hardness to suppress softness.”
Chen Ming nodded and said, "I understand."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Regarding the lawsuit over the purchase tax, do you need me to send someone to assist you?"
Chen Ming shook his head and said: "Thank you very much, President, for your kindness. We can solve this problem."
With that said, he stood up and said, "If there is nothing else, Chen Ming will leave first."
Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment, then stood up, "I don't know much about official etiquette. Should I set up a banquet to cleanse the dust of the tax envoy Chen?"
Chen Ming cupped his hands and said: "The president of the court is so flattering. How can Chen Ming be so virtuous as to be able to accept such hospitality? In addition, there are many matters waiting for me to handle at the Taxation Department."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Then let's do it next time. I'll send the tax envoy Chen."
"President of the Grand Court, no farewell, farewell."
Chen Ming bowed again, then turned and left.
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded. After Chen Ming went out, he smiled and said: "This is like a working person. He is much more reliable than those officials. Well, it seems that the inner warehouse is really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
ah!"
In fact, if Wang Anshi and Sima Guang fill the position of tax envoy, they may not do well. They are officials with Jinshi background. They only have the world in their eyes and will not care about the small profits. However, this is obviously not suitable for taxation.
It is the authority of the Secretary, and these officials must do this.
The inner treasure house was specially designed to help the emperor manage money and fields. Without two brushes, one could not enter the inner treasure house.
As soon as Chen Ming left, Xu Zhiqian came into the house and said, "Tax Commissioner Chen has just left. Why don't you keep him here for a simple meal?"
Zhang Fei sighed: "He is busy making money and doesn't have much time to entertain me."
Xu Zhiqian smiled softly, as if to say, I don't believe you. Then she asked: "How was your discussion?"
"I didn't talk about it, I just told him some things."
Zhang Fei suddenly breathed a long sigh of relief, "The tax department is here, and we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It's not easy!"
Xu Zhiqian said: "The tax department is here, what does it have to do with our imperial court?"
Zhang Fei said: "The relationship is serious. Without the tax department, the public prosecutors and the law will never be able to get on the right track. Because most of the current conflicts are caused by taxation, and our imperial court cannot handle it impartially. Just use this to buy tax."
All blind people know that they are illegally collecting taxes, but our imperial court gave them the best plan and let them find a way to reconcile.
The most unlawful ones are those who collect taxes, but they are also collecting money for the country. This is the most difficult case for our imperial court.
But now that the Taxation Department is here, what they are enforcing is the law enacted by our Imperial Court. They collect taxes according to the law, instead of relying on people to collect taxes. Only then can we truly make judgments according to the law, which will reduce the great burden of our Imperial Court.
If we are under pressure, those officials will not keep an eye on us every day, but will try to find ways to avoid the investigation of the tax department."
Xu Zhiqian nodded slightly and said, "What you said makes some sense."
Zhang Fei said: "There is more than some truth. Without the Department of Taxation to rectify the tax system, it will be difficult for the judiciary to develop. Because between money and law, the court will most likely choose money. A person who starves to death will not care about the law. Only when
The imperial court realized that the law can generate money, and only then can the public security organs and the procuratorate be truly successful."
Xu Zhiqian said: "So the success of justice is based on money, not on injustice."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "If it were you three years ago, I would tell you that justice is based on justice."
Xu Zhiqian said: "Why?"
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Because you were still very naive at that time!"
Xu Zhiqian gave him a sharp look and snorted: "I am also very childish now."
Zhang Fei said: "Now it can be called pursuing ideals, because you can at least accept that justice is based on money."
Xu Zhiqian sighed in frustration, "What can I do if I don't accept it?"
"Look! This is a sign of maturity." Zhang Fei smiled.
After Chen Ming left, he immediately dealt with the case of buying tax. Although the tax department had appealed to the imperial court, it only asked the imperial court to withdraw the previous judgment. In fact, the tax department did not intend to litigate with those buying households.
Because it is very difficult to win.
Chen Ming still chose to negotiate privately with Puhu, saying that the government was willing to share the burden with Puhu, but that Puhu would bear 70% and the government would bear 30%.
As Erbi, the representative of Fuhu, Li Min also told Chen Ming and others in a realistic way, "We cannot accept a 30-70 split under any circumstances. According to the contract signed by my client and the government, the government is always motivating us.
The more you charge, the more you get. My client fully complied with the contract with the government. Of course, my client did not want the matter to come to this point. In the end, we could only accept 50/50, with one party bearing half."
Just as Lu Bangxing was about to refute Li Min, Chen Ming suddenly put down his tea cup and said to Li Min: "Go and tell those customers that the reason why we are willing to bear 30% is because our tax department suddenly took over and we hope to resolve the matter as soon as possible. No
For others. If you are unwilling to accept our conditions, our tax department can bear all the compensation, but our tax department will pursue those households who evaded taxes this year, and we can get more."
Li Min was not afraid of Chen Ming at all, because the imperial court was behind him, and he said very seriously: "You are threatening, I can sue you to the imperial court."
Chen Ming spread his hands: "Who can testify?"
As he said that, he looked at Lu Bangxing very seriously, "Lu Erbi, do you think I am threatening him?"
Lu Bangxing shook his head and said, "I didn't hear anything."
Li Min felt embarrassed for a while and looked at Lu Bangxing with contempt.
Lu Bangxing replied to Li Min with his eyes, "I'm not afraid of him, it's just that I'm his lover, why don't I still turn to you?"
Chen Ming put the settlement plan directly in front of Li Min, "I am very familiar with the methods you wrote, so don't do this with me. Tell those who are paying for my words, and they will be very willing to do it."
Signed."
Faced with Chen Ming's aggressiveness, Li Min picked up the settlement plan and said, "I have also seen the methods of your tax department. My house is just a small door, and there is no need to use siege equipment. Farewell!"
Then he walked out.
Lu Bangxing stood up and asked with a smile: "Tax Commissioner Chen, how much tax does a bookstore like ours have to pay every year?"
Chen Ming replied seriously: "It depends on how much you can earn every year."
Lu Bangxing suddenly realized that there is no business in this world that is more profitable than tax collection.
After Li Min returned, he showed Jin Dabao and others the settlement agreement given to them by the Taxation Department, and informed them of Chen Ming's attitude. He also told them that if he wanted to litigate with the Taxation Department, he would be absolutely sure of winning.
When Jin Dabao and others heard this, they were scared to death.
Completely ignoring the issue of compensation, I grabbed Li Min and kept asking, how did the tax department know that they were evading taxes? Do they have any evidence? Will they sue us?
Li Min could only tell them truthfully that he had no idea how much evidence the Tax Department had, but judging from Chen Ming's attitude, as long as they compromised, they should not be prosecuted for their previous tax evasion charges.
In this way, Jin Dabao and the others felt at ease and quickly signed their names on the agreement.
In fact, the compensation is not much, they still make money, not to mention the government is willing to pay 30%.
The lawsuit eventually ended in settlement.
The government and households directly paid monetary compensation to the plaintiff, but at the same time the imperial court also withdrew the tax exemption plan. However, the imperial court did not withdraw the ban on the tax. Although Zhang Fei also knew that the Department of Taxation would abolish the tax, after all,
It has not been abolished yet, and this process must continue.
But in the eyes of the people, this was another great victory for the imperial court. Everyone noticed the previous attitude of the government and refused to implement it. However, only a few days later, they still obeyed the imperial court's decision.
They do not understand that the tax collection authority was actually taken over by the Department of Revenue, and it was not a compromise by the government.
This is not important. What is important is that people understand that they only need to pay taxes in accordance with the law. Any illegal tax collection can be resolved through the imperial court.
The imperial court is the father.
This has brought the prestige of the public security organs to a higher level.
However, nowadays, officials are not in the mood to pay much attention to the imperial court or their own face. They are more concerned about the Taxation Department, an official office that scares the powerful in the capital.
Coupled with the tax department's thunderous tactics, the lawsuit was settled in less than three days.
So they invited Chen Ming to come to the government office on the pretext of cleaning up Chen Ming's reputation, but in fact they were trying to find out how the tax department would collect taxes.
"This banquet will be waived."
Chen Ming still had that paralyzed face, and his tone was very consistent with his face. He said, "Everyone is here, and Chen is planning to inform you of the tax collection principles of our Taxation Department.
This also requires the cooperation of the government.”
Cai Yanqing hurriedly asked: "I wonder how Tax Commissioner Chen needs our cooperation?"
Chen Mingdao: "It's very simple, just let those tax collectors come to our tax department to take the assessment, and those who pass will be hired, and those who fail will have to be asked to do other things, and the tax collection rights of household heads and Li Zheng will be cancelled.
All tax matters are taken over by our Tax Department."
Wei Yingfang said calmly: "Hezhong Prefecture is not big or small. Even the government needs to borrow manpower from the private sector. Do you have so many people in the Taxation Department?"
Chen Mingdao: "Our tax department adopts independent reporting and collects whatever is reported. This does not require relying on too much manpower from them."
He Chunlin said with a smile: "We usually hire people to collect taxes, but some unscrupulous people try their best to evade taxes. If we report it ourselves, can we report a real number?"
Chen Mingdao: "You don't need to worry about this. We have our own way. Our Taxation Department can assure you that our Taxation Department will collect all the taxes in strict accordance with the tax laws.
However, there may be some changes in the rules. We believe that the two taxes are too costly in terms of manpower and material resources. In addition, the tax-free ceremony will be held in Hezhong next year, and people can also be exempted from military service by paying money. Therefore, we will combine the taxes into one and only have one tax every year.
Once the tax is levied, the government will need to make some adjustments to the use of the summer tax, but the total tax amount will not change."
As soon as these words came out, all the officials present were stunned for explanation.
“All taxes in one?”
"Yes."
Chen Ming nodded, "But these are mainly for some regular taxes, such as deed taxes, which are calculated separately. The only difference from before is that every land deed transaction must require the seal of our tax department.
For it to be officially effective, the deed tax money will also be handed over to the Taxation Department, and the same is true for everyone."
This last sentence caused the expressions of the officials present to change.
Chen Ming saw it, but he didn't care about the other person's feelings at all. He went his own way: "I know what you are worried about. Officials in the capital have also paid special attention to this. Our tax department will only collect taxes in accordance with the law and declare taxes independently."
There is a tax exemption column on the tax form. When you fill out the tax form, you only need to write down your tax exemption amount, and you only need to pay taxes other than tax exemption. If not, you do not need to pay."
There was a moment of silence in the lobby.
They finally knew why Chen Ming refused their banquet. The atmosphere was indeed not suitable for a banquet.
If a few days ago, Chen Ming only hinted that they had to pay taxes, then today's words made it very clear to them that they would definitely receive a tax bill by then.
But, let our officials pay taxes?
Please straighten your tongue and say it again.
However, Chen Ming told them with his eyes that this was not the humor of the tax department.