On the morning of March 15th, the 11th year of Ankang, the Wenhua Hall of the Forbidden City, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
The number of people coming to attend morning worship today has tripled.
After the establishment of Jiuqing and the reform of the Great Region, the number of personnel in the early dynasty in the central court of the Ming Dynasty shrank again.
The officials who usually participate in the morning dynasty are basically the Nine Ministers and a few bachelors.
Only under certain special circumstances will the department minister responsible for certain specific affairs or the military minister be called.
Today's morning court, in addition to the usual nine ministers and bachelors, a bunch of ministers were also summoned.
In addition to these people, the main leaders of the royal consortium and the government-run consortium also came.
Then there are members of the royal family and representatives of the main aristocrats in Beijing.
The representatives of the nobility were, to a certain extent, the representatives of the military.
The bachelor on duty announced the start of the morning court, and Zhu Jianfeng, the representative of the Ming royal family, stood up directly:
"Your Majesty, my brother, Jian Feng, thinks that His Majesty, Emperor Guangwu, revised the ancestral precepts set by Emperor Taizu Gao and established a new system of demotion and enfeoffment for kings and nobles, which has already played a role in taxation.
"Brother, let's call it a title tax.
"Those who pass the assessment can inherit the title of their fathers without downgrading. This is equivalent to having achieved results through hard work and making up for the title tax that should be paid by downgrading.
“At the same time, the title itself is the most important asset owned by kings and nobles.
"Therefore, my brother believes that the royal families of the Ming Dynasty and all the nobles with titles should not pay any form of tax when inheriting the title and the assets of their fathers."
When Zhu Jianfeng said this, he handed over to the emperor again, which meant that that was all he wanted to express for the time being.
This requirement is also very simple. Downgrading to title is a title tax. After paying the title tax, you should not have to pay inheritance tax.
There is no income tax on gifts between immediate family members.
Therefore, the scope of the interests he protected was very clear, that is, the royal family and all nobles of the Ming Dynasty.
The conditions requested are also very cautious. They only refuse inheritance tax and do not care about anything else.
He put on a posture of not wanting to get involved.
After Zhu Jianyan heard this, there was no expression on his face, and he seemed to ask very casually:
"Ninth Brother, is this the opinion of the Clan Renyuan?"
Zhu Jianfeng really wanted to say "yes" directly, but unfortunately he couldn't say that now.
The Zongrenyuan after the Renwu Dynasty was not the Zongrenfu before the Renwu Dynasty. It was a new institution established by Emperor Shizu.
All princes who have completed reserve education and passed complete administrative training will be crowned princes.
Except for one of them who is established as the emperor, everyone else will enter the Zongrenyuan after the new emperor succeeds to the throne.
The collateral princes who can inherit the royal title will also join the clan academy if they have completed the same education and training.
Therefore, all members of the Zongren Court are princes of the Ming Dynasty.
Except for the prince of the current emperor, all other princes of the Ming Dynasty are also members of the Zongrenyuan.
The dean of the Zongren Academy is concurrently appointed by the Supreme Emperor.
The Zongrenyuan has the right to question the policies and orders of the imperial court and request explanations from the corresponding executive agencies.
Its nature is similar to the supervisory board of a company in later generations, or the early House of Lords in European and Western countries.
Zhu Jianfeng is the current vice president of the Zongren Academy.
This revision of the tax laws was directly proposed by the Supreme Emperor, the dean of the Clan Academy, so Zhu Jianfeng could not take the lead in opposing it.
At the very least, it cannot be opposed in the name of the entire clan.
So Zhu Jianfeng thought about it for a moment and responded directly:
"My father is far away in the south of the Yangtze River, so this is not the intention of the Zongrenyuan.
"But this is the common opinion of all the princes of the clan who are currently on duty."
Zhu Jianyan nodded slightly:
"Brother, I understand..."
After saying this, Zhu Jianyan looked at Lu Yinpu, the Situ in charge of the world's finances.
Lu Yinpu is very embarrassed now.
Lu Yinpu's status in the Ming Dynasty was very special. Of course, he was the emperor's man first.
But he is also a member of the Dashi Prince family.
According to the rules set by Emperor Shizu, ministers who have served alongside princes who have been trained in governance will not be transferred from local areas to central ministries until the emperor selects a successor from all princes.
But Zhu Jingyuan is a special case.
When Zhu Jingyuan was in political training, in addition to the positions he held according to traditional practices, he also had a "governor".
Moreover, the scope of this governor is very large.
So far, except for the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, they have all been "governor-general" by him.
If no officials within the governorship of Zhu Jingyuan could be promoted to the central court, then there would be no one left in the court.
Therefore, the subordinate officials under Zhu Jingyuan's governorship are naturally not subject to convention restrictions.
Lu Yinpu served as the chief envoy of Beimozhou.
Not only did Beizhu Jingyuan directly supervise the area, it was even the area closest to the Great Food Country.
Therefore, Lu Yinpu and similar officials were regarded as members of the circle of the Prince of Dashi.
However, Lu Yinpu himself knew very well that Prince Dashi had supervised too many places, and he did not have any direct political relationship with Prince Dashi at all.
As in the past, only subordinates who have worked directly next to Prince Dashi can be regarded as Prince Dashi's people.
According to traditional rules, these people have not yet been promoted to various departments of the central government office.
In fact, he is just a minister of the current emperor, but he is very lucky to meet the ministers of Jiuqing and the great domain reform.
Therefore, he was promoted to the official position of Jiuqing, a first-level official, before he retired.
In theory, he must unconditionally support the emperor's decision-making.
However, whether it is inheritance tax or gift tax to immediate relatives, it will harm the interests of your family.
If he still has a choice now, Lu Yinpu does not want to express his views on this issue.
But his current position is Situ, in charge of finance including taxation.
Others can be silent, but you cannot be silent under any circumstances.
As a professional bureaucrat who had reached the high position of Jiuqing, Lu Yinpu quickly made his final decision even in such an extremely tangled situation.
He must stand on the emperor's side.
This is a choice that must be made, and those losses are also losses that must be endured.
Otherwise, there will be no future for you and your family.
Not only will the current emperor not reuse himself and his descendants, but neither will subsequent emperors.
The senior bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty in this era have understood that the Ming emperor is a very independent individual politically, and it is also a system that supports each other and inherits ideas.
If he refuses to cooperate with the current emperor on matters of governance and government affairs that he is responsible for, the successor emperor will not look good on himself and his family.
If you cooperate proactively, you should receive appropriate compensation afterwards.
What I can pursue now is to find ways to show my role so that I can get the best possible compensation afterwards.
Lu Yinpu took a deep breath, stood up and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, I believe that the downgrading of the titles of kings and nobles and the taxation of taxes are two things that are not related to each other.
“The title corresponds to the honor conferred by His Majesty and is proof of important contributions to the Ming Dynasty.
“In order to prevent future generations from sitting on the throne, and more importantly, to prevent unworthy descendants from dishonoring the reputation of their ancestors, descendants who wish to ascend to the title must pass the comprehensive assessment set by the imperial court.
“The difficulty of the comprehensive assessment corresponding to the knighthood is far from the level of raising the title by one level.
“The gift of asset income tax is aimed at the transfer of existing asset ownership.
“The logic of levying income tax on donated assets is the recognition and protection of His Majesty the Ming Emperor and the Ming Dynasty, allowing asset owners to donate and obtain assets legally and safely.
“So a title is a title, an asset is an asset, and a tax is a tax.
"No matter whether he has a title or not, whether he has been downgraded or not when inheriting the title, the transfer of his own assets requires the approval of His Majesty and the imperial court.
“The unwillingness to pay this part of the tax means that the corresponding assets are not recognized by His Majesty and the court.
"Of course there is no protection of any kind!
"Therefore, as a Situ of the Ming Dynasty, I believe that any form of private transfer of asset ownership should be taxed.
“The tax rate should be progressive, with the larger the amount of assets, the higher the tax rate.
“The threshold can be set to one hundred silver notes, and the tax rate can be set to five percent.
"The tax rate should be 50% for the amount exceeding 10,000 silver notes."
After Lu Yinpu's words came out, the eyes of most people present widened.
Even the emperor himself was a little surprised.
Zhu Jianyan knew that as long as Lu Yinpu's brain was not dizzy, he would know to cooperate with him at this time.
I just didn't expect him to do it so simply and thoroughly.
This is thorough, but it doesn't mean that he overdid it, or that he was a big talker.
In many cases, the lion's open mouth is actually to oppose, in the name of support.
Lu Yinpu's suggestions are, to a certain extent, raising the standards as high as possible within a reasonable range.
One hundred silver notes is equivalent to ten thousand yuan in future generations, and ten thousand silver notes is equivalent to one million.
The income tax was capped at a maximum of 50%, which was also a typical practice in later generations.
If Lu Yinpu wants to oppose in the name of approval, he should support not setting a threshold.
As long as there is a gift of one banknote, tax will be paid, and the highest tax rate will be raised to more than 80%.
That would be purely to cause trouble.
Of course, including inheritance, the income tax of up to 50% is unacceptable to everyone.
Most people at the scene turned their attention to Zhu Jianfeng.
This Lu Yinpu is going against you, the king. You should stand up and refute immediately, right?
The imperial court collects inheritance tax and income tax from gifts to immediate family members, which is obviously harmful to the interests of a prince like you.
But although Zhu Jianfeng frowned and had a straight face, he did not speak.
Zhu Jianfeng's thinking was also very simple. His father, the emperor, and his brother, the emperor, must really want to collect this tax.
The emperor's direct request and Lu Yinpu's current plan are both asking for a lot of money.
But at the same time, the entire wealthy class of Ming Dynasty will definitely oppose paying this tax.
They will definitely not accept the current plan, and they will definitely seek to lower the standards as much as possible.
The two sides will definitely have to argue for a while before finally compromising on a solution that is barely acceptable to both parties.
As a close prince, the son of the Supreme Emperor and the younger brother of the Emperor, his current status is very sensitive.
If he stands with the ministers below, he will probably be targeted by both the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor.
The key is that even if he is targeted by the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor, it is impossible for ordinary ministers to accept him.
A close prince like himself cannot fully integrate into the group of courtiers.
This is also the reason why Zhu Jianfeng was the first to stand up at the beginning.
The first time I stood up was to make a request as a member of the Clan Council, instead of echoing the ministers below.
Although Lu Yinpu is now opposing himself, the key is to express the emperor's intention.
If you oppose Lu Yinpu, you are opposing the emperor.
You can directly seek benefits from the emperor, and you can oppose the emperor's orders on other occasions.
But now we must not stand in the group of ministers.
So after Zhu Jianfeng expressed his attitude at the beginning, he changed to the mentality of watching a show.
Don't think about letting me be your spearhead again.
The scene remained deadlocked in such a strange atmosphere for a long time.
After continuous observation and low-pitched discussions with those around them, other courtiers slowly realized that Prince Zhu Jianfeng would not stand up and speak out.
So Wang Tingzhen, the Ming Dynasty's tomb master, Jiuqing, who had been at odds with Lu Yinpu a few years ago, stood up:
"Your Majesty, Lu Yinpu is just talking nonsense and has not considered the actual situation at all.
"If a family fortune of ten thousand silver coins has to be handed over to the court when it is passed on to children and grandchildren, who would be willing to work hard to make money?
"I believe that no matter what, you should not pay taxes if you inherit the family business from your ancestors."
Lu Yinpu also sprayed back without hesitation:
"Your Majesty, Wang Tingzhen is just talking nonsense and setting two sets of standards when treating others and herself.
“When discussing limiting workers’ working hours, he said that we cannot prevent people from working to obtain more wealth.
“Now when the issue of inheriting family business is being discussed, he supports children from wealthy families relying on the inheritance of their ancestors to live.
"Such a duplicitous person should not stay in the court of the Ming Dynasty, and he is not qualified to be an important minister of the Ming Dynasty.
“I believe that children from wealthy families should not want the inheritance of their ancestors and should strive for themselves.
“The wealthy families of the Ming Dynasty also became wealthy families in my world of the Ming Dynasty.
“Their wealth can only be preserved and used with the approval of the Ming Emperor and the court.
“They should hand over part of their assets to the Ming Dynasty to maintain the operation of the Ming Dynasty and to help people in poor areas.
“If they want to leave all their assets to their children and grandchildren without paying taxes.
"There is no need for His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty and the court to recognize this asset.
“So I now propose that anyone who refuses to pay income tax or evades taxes within the Ming Dynasty should be punished by confiscation of all assets.
"Including Wang Tingzhen's family, if his son wants to receive an inheritance when he dies but refuses to pay taxes, all his family property should be confiscated!"
This time Lu Yinpu's words were a bit deliberately exaggerated.
Tax evasion means that the assets are not recognized by the court, and the corresponding penalty is to directly confiscate the property.
But this time his target was not the emperor's inquiry, but to oppose Wang Tingzhen.
It is an exaggerated expression to illustrate that Wang Tingzhen’s reasons are simply untenable.
According to the tax logic established by His Majesty Emperor Shizu, Lu Yinpu’s statement is indeed more reasonable.
Personal assets must be recognized by the emperor and the court in order to be protected.
The condition for obtaining protection is to use part of it as tax and hand it over to the court.
Every change in asset ownership must be approved by the court so that the transaction can be protected and recognized.
Therefore, all transactions and all changes in property rights are theoretically taxable.
Only the taxes on inheritance and gifts from immediate family members were blocked by the main officials with the ethics of the Ming Dynasty.
The current wall of ethics and morality has been punctured by the Gusu Bank incident.
Then there is no way to stop the court from collecting taxes in this area.
So purely based on this logic, there is no way for everyone to continue to oppose paying this tax.
If faced with ordinary people, even people of the same level, they can still make trouble unreasonably, cannot argue logically, and refuse to admit that others can't do anything to them.
But it doesn't work when facing the emperor. Anyone who makes trouble without reason should not be an official.
Most of the people at the scene became sad when they heard this.
In twos and threes, they discussed in low voices with the people around them how this matter should end.
Wang Tingzhen took a deep breath and turned to the emperor directly without confronting Lu Yinpu and said:
“Your Majesty, the purpose of this revision of the law is to close existing tax loopholes.
“The method of tax evasion discovered by businessmen this time involves tax-free gifts between multiple people with different relationships.
“Gifts between father and son, gifts between husband and wife, and reverse gifts between father and daughter.
“We can avoid this by just cutting off one of the parts.
“Gifts between father and son cannot be avoided, but gifts between husband and wife can be avoided, and reverse gifts between father and daughter can also be avoided.
“Between a married man and a woman, it makes no sense to specifically distinguish the ownership of their property.
“A married woman cannot transfer her husband’s assets to her father.
“We can avoid this tax loophole simply by prohibiting fathers from transferring assets directly to their daughters-in-law and married women from transferring assets to their parents.
"We don't need to tax all changes in asset ownership between relatives."
If you can't argue logically, then you can only go back and find a solution.
It’s just that this method is not very reasonable.
Lu Yinpu was already on the side of the emperor anyway, and he asked directly again without hesitation:
"The ownership of assets between husband and wife is meaningless? What should we do when we get divorced?
"Haven't you ever learned that the Emperor has discovered that businessmen transfer assets through marriage and divorce?
“For many people, the righteousness of human ethics no longer exists.
“As long as there is a way to avoid taxes, they will find a way to exploit it, and now they will find new ones if it is not available.
“The real solution is to collect taxes.
“Tax any form of change in asset ownership and close any loopholes that may exist.
“The key point is, morality and ethics no longer exist, so why are we still exempt from taxes?”
Lu Yinpu still grasps the basics, and the donation of assets between relatives is tax-free. The starting point is traditional moral ethics.
These people no longer take traditional moral ethics seriously, so why are they still exempt from tax?
(End of chapter)
