Returning to his home after a long absence, Chen Lifu didn't have much time to spend with his family. As soon as he arrived home, he met several of his important subordinates in the study.
He simply listened to the big and small things that happened during the inspection period during his absence.
In fact, nothing major has happened within the Inspection Office in recent times. After Chen Lifu's rectification in the past two years, the Inspection Office has already been on track.
Basically, more than half of the more than 70 tax inspectors under the Inspection Office are inspecting local areas. The only thing worth mentioning is that overseas tax problems also occurred in the Ryukyu Prefecture.
Ryukyu Prefecture is an important transit point on the sea route from China to Fuso. Maritime trade is its lifeblood and brings huge wealth to it. In the process, some quite serious tax problems occurred.
In the ninth year of Xuanping, the tax revenue collected by Ryukyu Prefecture was only 70% of the tax department’s estimate!
Especially in Osumi County, the northernmost part of Ryukyu Prefecture, which was established just over a year ago, the tax collected in the whole year of Xuanping 9 was only a pitiful 10,000 taels of silver!
This is definitely problematic!
Although Osumi County was established just over a year ago and is located overseas with a total permanent population of only a few thousand people, Osumi County has never relied on agriculture or other general industrial development. It is only a few kilometers away from Fuso Kyushu Island.
Separated by the Osumi Strait, it was one of the most important ports for the Tang Dynasty's trade with Fuso in the past year.
Such an important place only collected more than 10,000 taels of silver in tax revenue in a year, and a hundred people in the tax department didn't believe it.
You must know that ordinary agricultural counties in China, even low-level counties, can collect tens of thousands of taels of silver in tax revenue a year.
There is no reason why Osumi Prefecture is worse than these inferior counties!
Everyone in the tax department is very shrewd. When they see the tax figures reported by Ryukyu Prefecture, they don’t care whether there are any problems with the account books or what methods you use to hide the truth. They will assume
a little:
"If an important maritime trade transit station like Ryukyu Prefecture cannot collect two to three hundred thousand taels of tax revenue a year, then there must be something wrong!"
So when they saw this number, they immediately concluded that there must be a tax problem in Ryukyu Prefecture, and immediately sent tax inspections to Ryukyu Prefecture to rectify local taxes.
After hearing this, Chen Lifu nodded slightly and said nothing more. It was normal that there were tax issues in the local area. If there were no tax issues, then their inspection office could be abolished.
Tax collection has always been a matter of great contradiction. The tax department has to complete its tasks, but the landowners and businessmen on the ground are trying every means to evade taxes, and even go so far as to win over local officials.
Whenever this happens, what the inspection office needs to do is to send out tax inspections and then clean up the local taxation!
Occasionally, we encounter local landowners, businessmen, and officials colluding together to cover up in the face of tax inspections, or even cause turmoil. Once trouble occurs, they impeach the tax inspections and accuse them of undermining local stability.
For the sake of local stability and the people of Liming, let the superiors withdraw the tax inspections, or simply frame them!
Whenever this happens, that's when the inspection office goes on a killing spree!
The tax department doesn't care whether your place is safe or not. Besides, those who evade taxes are either big landowners and businessmen, or officials are greedy and bend the law and misappropriate taxes. As for ordinary people, they are not qualified to evade taxes.
Therefore, tax inspection officials often directly use tax inspection teams. If the local ones cannot be used, then they temporarily mobilize the ones from other places. If this is not possible, it is possible to ask the local garrison for help.
The landowners, businessmen and local corrupt officials are naturally very good at plotting and scheming, and their local relationships are complicated. It is not easy to find out the evidence.
However, the tax inspectors would not play this trick with them at all, and would often attack them directly with gunfire!
What is an investigation?
That is, after sending troops to surround, they would conduct a direct search with a search warrant and arrest people on the spot after finding evidence. As for resisting, that would be even better. They didn't even bother to look for evidence, and just started attacking with guns and cannons!
Armed tax resistance is considered complicity in treason!
The tax department is so unreasonable!
The current situation is that if the empire wants to evade taxes on a small scale, there is naturally no way to prevent it, but if it wants to evade taxes on a large scale, it is unlikely.
Because the Ministry of Taxation can obtain a lot of data, the accounts of major banks including the Royal Bank are open to the tax, and they can also access data from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture and other departments.
They have their own way of calculating how much tax a certain place can collect every year. They first look at tax revenue in previous years, then look at the development of local agriculture, industry and commerce, then look at the capital flow of local banks, and then calculate a rough estimate.
interval.
If it exceeds this range, it will often attract the attention of the inspection office and send tax inspectors to investigate.
If the tax inspector sent there can't find any problems, it's okay, they will send another one. As for the tax inspector who can't find any problems, the end will naturally be no better. He is either corrupted or incompetent.
, and both of them will end up miserable no matter which one they end up with.
If the tax inspection still cannot find any problems, then the matter will basically come into Chen Lifu's sight. The next step is to send a tax inspection at the level of deputy director of the inspection department of the fifth grade. If the tax inspection still cannot be found,
If there is a problem, then basically the matter can be brought to Qian Zuili's face.
Because this means that the problem is very big, the Ministry of Taxation is expected to change the local tax system from top to bottom, conduct a thorough investigation of local landlords and businesses, and then contact the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ask them to
The officials also changed from head to toe!
They don't believe that they can't find the problem. When the problem is found, even if it's time to calculate the general ledger, it's necessary to have heads rolling in!
As for whether there is really no problem with local taxation?
Nonsense, no matter what other people say, the people in the tax department definitely don’t believe it!
Therefore, no matter how much the local authorities try to cover it up, they cannot actually escape the supervision of the tax department!
Because they don’t care about your account books at all. They only focus on the local economic development and bank statements. A government with a good economic situation has no corresponding increase in tax revenue. If there are no problems here, the tax department
People dared to hang themselves collectively!
People in the tax department know very well that tax evasion is a human evil and cannot be completely eradicated!
To put an end to this situation, it is impossible to expect people to consciously avoid tax evasion. All they have to do is to make the cost of tax evasion so great that it scares them.
Tax evasion, like other illegal things, has costs.
At present, in the Tang Empire, the illegal costs of tax evasion and tax evasion are quite high, and it is easy to confiscate homes and exterminate families. As for fines and arrests, they are light, but even so, it is difficult to completely eliminate it.
Because people these days, especially the big local landowners and big businessmen, always feel that they are local snakes and can control everything. They can bribe ordinary officials, tax officials, and even tax inspectors.
But these people don’t know that the more they do this, the more serious things will become!
No matter who they bribe, no matter how beautiful the accounts are, if the tax department determines that the tax revenue of this place is low and cannot collect it, and cannot find the problem, then things will really get serious at this time.
If the tax department is offended, they will really dispatch tax inspection teams or even garrison troops from other places to help, then surround the homes of potential suspects such as big landowners and big businessmen, and conduct carpet searches one by one.
At that time, they will even make a fuss out of a molehill and start arresting people for any big or small tax problems. Once they catch the people, they will slowly start to examine them.
Basically, since the Grain Collection Department of the Datang Taxation Department was established, there has never been a situation where they were unable to collect the taxes they wanted to collect!
The Inspection Office wants to investigate whether a person has committed tax evasion, but there has never been a situation where it couldn't be found out, because almost everyone's buttocks are dirty.
The tax department actually turns a blind eye in many cases. As long as they don't go too far, they are not willing to push too hard. They also want to take things step by step and boil the frog in warm water.
But if you go too far, they will be able to find key evidence and send you to jail in minutes!
After all, there are not many people in this world who are as rich as Chen Lifu and have lofty ideals!
As for the tax issues in Ryukyu Mansion, since they have already sent people there, Chen Lifu did not interfere too much and just waited for the news from Ryukyu Mansion. Now he is more concerned about who the hell reported it this time.
own.
Or the word "who" is not very appropriate, because this word represents an individual, it should be said which group of people reported him again!
The person who reported him would definitely not be just one or two people. The person behind it would definitely be a gang and a force.
Chen Lifu has encountered this situation many times. In the eighth year of Xuanping Dynasty, when he was rectifying the tax on the timber industry, businessmen in the timber industry united with dozens of court officials to attack him, not to mention reporting and impeachment.
He, a good official who was dedicated to serving the common people, was almost killed by an assassin's pistol.
After what happened, he installed high-quality steel plates on his carriage to prevent him from being assassinated with a musket at this moment. He also brought several personal followers with him when he came in and out.
They are called followers, but they are actually bodyguards.
That time, Chen Lifu was almost assassinated, and he was naturally furious afterwards!
Then, the empire's timber industry almost went through a major shake-up. The top dozen or so large timber merchants all collapsed overnight. Their families were severely confiscated and their families were exterminated. The best ones were also fined and went bankrupt!
, the charges are all the same: tax evasion!
Those middle-ranked timber merchants, just like being hit by pie from the sky, took over the various resources and channels left by the big timber merchants with a smile, and then became one of the largest timber merchants in the empire.
.
Now, someone is reporting him again. He wants to see who is causing trouble. Once he finds out the identity of the enemy, he will not hesitate at all and will directly launch a thunderous counterattack!
If you don’t show off your power even after you are older, many people may start to treat you like a sick cat!