"Old Tang, come out and count the vegetables." A middle-aged woman and a young man pulled a cart of vegetables back and shouted as they unloaded the vegetables in their backyard.
"Come on, come on!" Accompanied by this voice, a fat man walked in from the back door of the store with a scale in his hand. He had a round face and an increasingly fat figure. If he was an acquaintance, he would be able to recognize him at a glance. It turned out that he was Tang Bohe, the owner of Shandong Noodle House.
He took the vegetables he bought from his wife Mo Shi and his clerk, weighed them about yao on a scale, and then put them aside. The clerk stored the vegetables in different places according to the types.
After a while, they finished their work, and Mrs. Mo sat on the chair, panting and complaining: "What evil did I do in my previous life?"
"In the past, in order to save expenses, I just did all the work myself. Even if I was an apprentice, I had to take care of the food. Now our family has made such a big contribution, and the eldest son is hereditary. Although he only sends salary to each It’s a lot of money per month, and there’s also the salary from the army.”
"What's more, with the late emperor's plaque and the current His Majesty's care, it doesn't matter if our family's business is not booming, why should I still do these jobs?"
Tang Bohe didn't say anything. He knew that in fact, Mrs. Mo was just as restless as him, so she still worked every day. Otherwise, given the current situation of their family, would Tang Bohe allow her to work?
It's just that every time she finished her work, she would complain. Tang Bohe was used to it, and sometimes she would make a few jokes. But today he was afraid that the account was recorded incorrectly, so he didn't say anything.
Mr. Mo didn't take it seriously and just complained. After a while, Tang Bohe finished settling the accounts, looked at his wife who was still dripping with sweat on her forehead, and said with some distress: "Go back to the house and rest for a while. The weather is getting worse day by day." It’s hot and it’s not good to rest in a chair.”
But Mrs. Mo waved her hand and said, "It's almost noon. People should come. How can we rest at this time? Let's wait until after noon and there are fewer people."
Tang Bohe couldn't force her, so he had no choice but to let her go.
At this time, a waiter walked up to the front hall and said: "My boss, the police from the nearby police station are here again. They also came in today and said they have something to tell you."
"Oh, I'll be there right away." With that, Tang Bohe gave a few more instructions and walked back to the front hall.
When he walked back to the front hall, three policemen were sitting near a table waiting. When they saw Tang Bohe coming over, they stood up quickly.
Tang Bohe glanced at him and thought: 'Two of them are policemen from the nearby police station that I know. Who is the remaining one? I haven't seen him before? He is a new transfer? But the style of his hat is different from that of the policemen at the police station? '
"Hello, three police officers." He hid his doubts and smiled.
"Dr. Tang's business is booming." The two policemen also said with a smile. Another unknown person also said hello.
Tang Bohe pretended to be casual and said to the unknown policeman: "I don't know this policeman. Is he just transferred to the police station here?"
"Oh, no, Mr. Tang, I'm a tax policeman." The policeman said.
'Tax police?' Tang Bohe finally remembered that the style of his hat was indeed that of a tax policeman. Because the tax police had just been established this month and had not collected taxes yet. He had only seen them a few times from a distance, so he didn't think of it at the first time. .
"It seems that today's matter is related to taxes. But today is only twenty-nine, and there are still two days before tax collection." Tang Bohe was confused.
The few of them chatted for a while, and then Tang Bohe said: "You three, you came to my shop today, I'm afraid it's about taxes."
One of them, a policeman named Xue Guobao, who was familiar with Tang Bohe, said: "Nothing can escape you. The situation is like this, Mr. Tang's family. The court has issued new regulations on merchant taxation. Starting from next month, everyone will follow the new method."
Taxes paid.”
"Then how to pay taxes?" Tang Bohe asked. He didn't really care about this now, but he was still a little curious.
"According to the 29th year of Hongwu's law, one household pays one tax, and the tax amount is fixed. As long as there is a store, each household pays one share of the tax."
"It won't be the case from next month. From next month, the tax will be paid based on the total area of the merchant's store. How much tax is paid according to the area written on the land deed. Oh, by the way, different stores charge per foot of land.
The amount of tax is different." The policeman whom Tang Bohe didn't know said.
Yes, the new tax system for urban fixed merchants implemented by Yunxi is to collect taxes based on the area of the store.
After much thought, he still felt that levying income tax was unreliable and might give the tax police the opportunity to harm the people. However, the previous tax amount paid per household was too low, so he came up with this method of collecting income tax according to the store.
Methods to collect area tax.
In the same industry, good operations generally have a larger area than poor ones, so small stores will not have to pay more. At the same time, if most industries want to expand their business scale, they must expand their store area, and large stores do not want to evade taxes.
easy.
Of course, the tax rates for plots of the same size in different industries are different. Restaurants, for example, have higher tax rates, while some Datong shops, which are specially designed for coolies to rest, have very low tax rates.
The tax policeman told him some more details, and finally said: "That's all I have to do, there's nothing else."
When Tang Bohe heard these words and was thinking about seeing off the guests, he suddenly found that the three of them hadn't moved. The arms they had raised stopped awkwardly in the air and had to fall down again.
Xue Guobao smiled and said: "Why, Mr. Tang, do you want us to leave so much?"
"How can that be possible?" Tang Bohe said.
The patrolman joked, stopped joking with him, and said, "Dong Tang's family, we have other things to talk about."
"Starting from the first day of next month, no matter whether it is merchants, private households, craftsmen or government officials' mansions, they are not allowed to pour dirty water outside the house, litter, or urinate on the street; livestock are not allowed to defecate on the street.
, need to be packed in bags;..." Xue Guobao said many things in one breath.
Finally, he said: "Starting from next month, our patrol officers will be punished if they see these things."
"The government doesn't even care about these things." Tang Bohe muttered quietly.
However, he didn't say anything and there was no need to confront the police.
Xue Guobao added: "By the way, Mr. Tang, are there any hooligans or bullies in this alley? Your family doesn't have to be afraid of them. If there are any, just tell our police. Recently, we are checking out the little hooligans and bullies who are harassing good people.
, if caught, he will be punished the first time, put in prison the second time, and exiled to the border gate the third time."
Tang Bohe was very happy that the government took care of these things. His family had been harassed by these little hooligans in the past; their methods were similar to those of beggars, which was to disturb your business and make you choose to lose money to eliminate disaster. Although Tang Bohe was not allowed to do so later.
They harassed, but also hated these people.
He said: "If I knew, I would definitely tell the two policemen. But there are really no such people in this alley now. They were all arrested a while ago."
After talking about this matter, these policemen really had nothing to do and left. However, before leaving, Xue Guobao said to him again: "Old Tang, don't take what I just said seriously. The capital is the capital after all, the most virtuous place.