Reducing the tax burden on low-income groups is not inconsistent with increasing the total tax amount, because reducing the burden on low-income groups is mainly implemented by adjusting the threshold of personal income tax, while increasing the total tax amount is by improving the tax system
, carried out by plugging loopholes.
Judging from the current economic development of the empire, even if there is no tax increase, tax revenue is actually rising year by year. The only problem is to plug the many loopholes in a timely manner.
There are too many smart people these days, and a lot of tax avoidance methods appear every year. Every tax reform will seal the tax loopholes that have been discovered.
The overall direction has been clear, but how to implement it specifically is the focus of the game between all parties. This also brings excitement to December of the 47th year of Xuanping, which is different from previous years.
Important ministers including Chen Lifu, in addition to putting on a show for the annual budget as in previous years, also need to debate the tax reform plan.
This Spring Festival, many people are destined to feel uneasy.
With the arrival of the Spring Festival, the annual budget has been finalized. However, there is not much to say about this annual budget. It is basically similar to what the outside world expected.
The fiscal expenditure budget for the forty-eighth year of Xuanping was 850 million Tang yuan.
Among them, the military expenditure budget is 18.3%, reaching more than 150 million. In fact, this figure also includes the military expenditures of the Guards. Although nominally, the military expenditures of the Guards are not included in military expenditures, but
It comes from the royal family's funds, but it is basically accepted that the military expenses of the Guards are also included in the military expenses.
This ratio is actually the same as last year. The empire's military expenditure has been maintained at around 1.5 billion Tang Yuan for a long time, and it will not even change much due to the increase or decrease in fiscal revenue.
In addition to military expenditures, the remaining money is basically divided up by various cabinet departments. Except for administrative expenses (including salary expenditures for personnel in government-run education, hospitals and other public service systems), most of the fiscal expenditures are still used for
Costs for various types of infrastructure construction.
Extensive infrastructure construction was a basic national policy of the Tang Empire that lasted for decades. A large number of roads, bridges, water conservancy facilities, etc. were built every year.
And this is only limited to central fiscal expenditures and does not include local fiscal expenditures.
Because in the taxation system of the Tang Empire, although the money was collected by the tax department, not all of these fiscal revenues were paid to the central finance, and part of them was reserved for local finances at all levels.
Overall, the ratio of central and local fiscal revenue is maintained at about one to one, but it varies in different years and in different places.
If local governments at all levels have fiscal revenue, they will naturally have fiscal expenditures at all levels.
Adding the two together is actually the national fiscal revenue and expenditure of the Tang Empire.
And local governments have fiscal revenue and expenditure, so there will be local fiscal bankruptcy with the characteristics of Datang!
As the empire is so big, there will always be some local yamen that make mistakes, resulting in too much arrears and bankruptcy. The most recent one was in November last year. A certain county in the hinterland was too radical in the past few years and followed other people's example.
Economically developed prefectures and counties took out loans to build cement roads, and the roads were repaired. However, the local economy was still the same, and they owed a lot of debt. As a result, their finances continued to deteriorate, and they eventually went bankrupt.
After the county went bankrupt, even its office buildings were auctioned off to pay off debts, and a handful of officials had to live in simple temporary houses to work.
This winter, the magistrates and county magistrates all had to work in wooden houses with air leakage from all sides, and even the stoves could not be used due to lack of money.
Even if officials are personally wealthy, they dare not spend their own money to buy coal stoves for heating because of political impression.
Well, if you insist on buying it, the superiors will remove you from your position.
Damn you, you have bankrupted the local finance. If you continue to enjoy things from a high place, how do you want the people to think? The people are not allowed to think that the government is completely evil. This is not okay. You have to let the people have a place to vent their anger.
Therefore, officials in bankrupt local government must suffer!
Otherwise, the people will be unhappy and the higher-ups will be unhappy too!
But even so, it still cannot stop many local officials from borrowing heavily and engaging in various developments in order to pursue political achievements.
After all, if the adventure is successful, you will be promoted and rich in minutes!
If you can't do it well, just go out in the cold weather and don't expect to be promoted in this life.
The officialdom of the Tang Dynasty was so cruel. Anyway, the boss only wanted results. You had to figure out how to do it yourself and bear the risks yourself. If you did well, you would be promoted. If you didn't do well, you would get kicked out. If you don't, you'd better get out. There were plenty of people willing to do it!
Therefore, basically every once in a while, you can hear about the financial bankruptcy of a certain place.
This was a feature of the political arena of the Tang Dynasty. Many natives found it unbelievable when they heard about it. They had never thought that the government would go bankrupt and the office building would be auctioned off!
But in Datang, this was normal.
Of course, even if local finances go bankrupt, the symbolic significance is actually greater than the actual significance. No matter what, the superiors will not allow the local governance institutions to completely fail, and those who should cover up will still cover up.
Generally speaking, when local finance goes bankrupt, the unlucky ones are the relevant officials, who still have little relationship with the grassroots.
But even so, the empire's top officials began to restrict local governments from making random loans, and did not allow local governments to have too much debt, so as not to cause large-scale financial turmoil.
The financial system of the Tang Dynasty was already very complete compared to contemporary times, so in many cases, fiscal budget allocations were often fixed and it was difficult to make any major changes.
Otherwise, why are the ministers showing off their acting skills at the fiscal expenditure meeting at the end of each year?
The fiscal expenditure budget has been determined, but the tax reform is still not determined. The only thing that can be determined is that the empire has clearly announced it through the Tang Dynasty Newspaper. This tax reform will definitely increase personal income tax.
starting point.
And this news is enough for countless people to have a peaceful Spring Festival.
Tax cuts make everyone happy!
Sure enough, just after the Spring Festival, on the 10th day of the first lunar month, the Empire officially announced that new personal income tax regulations would be implemented on a trial basis starting in June this year. This new regulation raised the threshold for personal income tax and imposed restrictions on some practitioners in special industries.
Certain reductions and exemptions are provided, especially for employees who provide public services with certain risks, such as firefighters and patrol officers responsible for criminal cases.
At the same time, it is clarified that personal income tax reductions and exemptions for disadvantaged groups are mainly targeted at low-income disabled people, orphans, etc.
The Ministry of Taxation has disclosed that after this adjustment, the scope of personal income tax collection will be reduced from the previous 40 million to 30 million people.
Of course, the Ministry of Taxation has not announced whether the total personal income tax will increase or decrease after the reform.