Emperor Zhu Jianyan of the Ming Dynasty presided over tax reform in the capital, and Zhu Jingyuan accelerated the reform of the voucher system in Jiangnan.
The Supreme Emperor Zhu Zhongliang did not stay too long after triggering the Gusu Bank Incident in Suzhou.
After arresting the relevant personnel of Gusu Bank, they were directly handed over to court officials for disposal.
Zhu Zhongliang continued his inspection.
After leaving Suzhou, I went to Songjiang, mainly to see the shipyard.
Then I transferred to Nantong and went to see the automobile industry.
Then we went around to Hangzhou, Zhoushan, and the Eastern Naval Base.
Finally, we went out for a lap with the latest aircraft carrier formation.
Zhu Zhongliang felt very satisfied after observing and asking about the latest aircraft carrier combat training methods.
What I have been looking forward to for decades is finally infinitely close to perfection.
According to the information I know, jet aircraft, ship-based and air-borne missiles, and ship-based early warning aircraft have also begun to be developed.
The real service will only be in the next few years.
Xintianfu's theoretical research on atomic weapons has been basically completed.
The follow-up is an engineering issue.
As long as I don't get seriously ill in the past few years, I will definitely be able to see it in my lifetime.
On April 15, the eleventh year of Ankang, Zhu Zhongliang returned to the Forbidden City of Yingtian Mansion again.
Zhu Jingyuan put down the work at hand and went to greet and accompany the old man.
In the bedroom of Renshou Palace, Zhu Zhongliang was lying on the recliner very comfortably, talking to Zhu Jingyuan sitting next to him:
"How's the income tax reform going? Has your father finished it?"
Zhu Jingyuan thought about the information he had received from his father's notice that had not yet been made public:
“The Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Taxation, and the Ministry of Punishment have cooperated to formulate an inheritance tax and gift tax collection plan.
“Both are calculated using a progressive approach, but the threshold and tax rate are calculated separately.
“Inheritance tax is levied on the recipient and gift tax is levied on the giver.
“The starting point for the gift tax is one hundred silver notes for a single payment and one thousand two hundred silver notes for each year.
“A single gift of one hundred silver notes, and a total gift of less than one thousand, two hundred silver notes throughout the year will not be taxed.
“If a single gift exceeds one hundred silver notes, the gift in a year shall not exceed one thousand, two hundred silver notes.
“At that time, the tax was paid according to the determined single gift tax rate, and the full amount was refunded the next year with the tax payment certificate.
“The tax rate for the portion between one hundred silver notes and one thousand silver notes is five percent.
“The tax rate for the portion between one thousand silver notes and ten thousand silver notes is 10%.
“The tax rate for the portion between 10,000 silver notes and 100,000 silver notes is 20%.
“The tax rate for the portion between one hundred thousand silver notes and one million silver notes is 30%.
“The tax rate is 40% on amounts above one million banknotes.
“The starting point for inheritance tax is 10,000 silver notes, and no tax is payable on the portion below 10,000 silver notes.
“The tax rate for the portion between 10,000 silver notes and 50,000 silver notes is 5%.
“The tax rate is 10% for the portion between 50,000 silver notes and 250,000 silver notes.
“The tax rate for the portion between 250,000 silver notes and one million silver notes is 20%.
“The tax rate for the portion between one million and five million banknotes is 30%.
“The tax rate is 40% on amounts above five million banknotes.
“The last thing is the tax rebate package.
“The first level is a general tax refund, where both the gifting party and the inheriting party have no illegal or criminal records or tax evasion records.
“Inheritance worth less than 250,000 silver notes, and gifts of less than 10,000 silver notes.
“The tax paid at the normal rate at that time will be fully refunded in the second year.
“The final effective tax rate is zero.
“For inheritances worth more than 250,000 silver coins, and gifts of more than 10,000 silver coins, 50% of the tax will be refunded.
“The tax rates for the corresponding levels above are all reduced by half.
“Regardless of gift or inheritance, the final effective tax rate does not exceed 20 percent.
"Basically, half of the remaining tax can be refunded with the approval of the Ministry of Rites and Uncle Zong.
“With the special approval of my father, all can be returned.
“However, there are currently a large number of officials, shopkeepers, nobles, and clan members who are unable to accept this plan.
“The main reason is that there should not be a front-loaded universal tax rebate scheme.
“The upper limit of the direct tax rate should be set at 20%.
“On this basis, it will be returned with the approval of the yamen at all levels.
"Mr. Shen suggested that the draft be published to the world for discussion, but they did not agree..."
Zhu Zhongliang laughed directly when he heard this and said:
“Obviously, people with assets of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of banknotes will have more or less illegal records.
"According to the rules of Shizu, it is a crime to ride a horse and drive a car while drunk, it is illegal to not follow the prescribed direction, and it is illegal to evade tax even if you don't pay even a penny.
"Those nobles and clans may not dare to make big mistakes, but they must have made a lot of small mistakes. There are very few people who have not been punished by any yamen at all.
“It is basically impossible for anyone who is engaged in industry and commerce to escape any tax at all.
“People who really pay taxes honestly, live honestly, and do not break the law at all are mostly working men and small businessmen.
“So if they follow this rule, these people will give up half of their taxes.
"Of course they disagree.
“As for public discussion...this basic plan is obviously restricting the wealthy class.
"Ordinary families... let alone ordinary families, most professional bureaucratic families and most ordinary businessmen should not have a fortune of 250,000 silver notes.
"Even most people can't imagine that they can earn a fortune of 250,000 silver coins in this life.
“If this tax law plan is announced, the relevant personnel will definitely feel very happy, and many people will definitely express their support.
“It’s not because ordinary people don’t like others, but taxing the rich can narrow the class gap.
“It helps children from ordinary families catch up with children from wealthy families through hard work...
“However, there are basically no real ordinary families who can directly participate in the discussion, and most of them will be restricted.
“So most of the people around your father will stand up and oppose it.
“This plan will definitely need to be revised.
“At the very least, if there is no illegal record, it will most likely be changed to a clean record.
"There is even no criminal record or tax evasion record in recent years...
"It depends on how far your father can compete with them."
Zhu Jingyuan also nodded slightly:
"I originally thought about not levying inheritance tax, but I didn't expect that my father really wanted to impose this tax."
When Zhu Zhongliang heard this, he couldn't help but sit forward:
"You...you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are when you are not a family member, so you are too generous when making decisions.
"While I can still move now, I will have a good talk with you today.
"Emperor Shizu's method of lifting the roof is certainly useful. Although the plan of lifting the roof is usually not the final goal, the corresponding plan of opening the windows is not opened casually.
“If it can be done, the roof-lifting option is the ultimate solution.
“If you can avoid compromise, don’t compromise and stick to your goals.
“Just like the inheritance tax, if it can be collected, of course it should be collected.
“Rather than give up when you find it difficult.
"If you give up when you find it difficult, then there is no need to fight externally.
"Fighting is so difficult, just admit defeat!"
Zhu Jingyuan opened his mouth:
"Grandpa... It's not that I want to give up. It's just that inheritance tax is really difficult to collect.
“It’s not that heritage owners are uncooperative, but more importantly, it’s difficult to quantify and deliver.
"For example, a family has a factory with a market valuation of one million silver coins.
“According to the current temporary tax plan, when this factory is passed on to children, taxes will have to be paid in 172,000 silver coins.
"The entire factory only has one million banknotes, and there is no way that there are 170,000 banknotes in liquidity in the account.
"Even if there is, if all is taken out to pay taxes, the entire factory will be paralyzed, and it will probably close down directly.
“If the level continues to increase, the pressure will become even greater.
“For a business with a market price of 10 million silver notes, the tax it had to pay at that time was 3.37 million silver notes.
"It's impossible for the heir to get it...
“It’s a similar story with houses and estates.
“If a nobleman’s estate and land are worth tens of millions of silver coins, his annual income may not exceed one million silver coins, and he still has to deal with various expenses.
"It's impossible for his children to pay the inheritance tax..."
Zhu Zhongliang shook his head after hearing this:
“You usually consider issues from the perspective of the workers, so why are you siding with the factory owners now?
"Even from the standpoint of the factory owner, you haven't fully understood their methods.
“It’s easy for the heirs of factories and businesses to pay taxes if they can’t get cash. They can just hand over the equity in proportion.
"It just so happens that the imperial court already has a government-run consortium, so we can just give the equity directly to similar manufacturers in the government-run consortium to operate it.
“If you are unwilling to hand over the equity, you can go to a bank for a mortgage loan and repay the loan over several years or even more than ten years.
“You can also distribute the equity of the factory to the owners of the entire family, and even use the shares to hire important shopkeepers and managers.
“Because this inheritance tax plan is based on the tax rate calculated based on the amount of assets acquired by the heirs.
“The lower the amount of assets acquired by an individual heir, the lower the overall amount of tax payable.
“If you don’t split the assets of 10 million, you will need to pay 3.37 million in income tax.
"After dividing it among ten people, each person's assets are one million, and they need to pay taxes of one hundred and seventy-two thousand silver coins.
“The total tax that ten people need to pay is only 1.72 million silver coins.
“The big owners of the factory only need to hold 30% of the shares to fully control the entire factory.
“The rest can be distributed to important subordinates and partners.
“If the 30% of the shares are divided among several children, the tax paid by each child and the total tax will be less.
“The court can also issue special regulations so that the tax rate can be further reduced when the inherited family property is divided.
“For example, if a family property of 10 million yuan is divided equally among five children, each child can receive 2 million yuan, but each person only needs to pay income tax according to the standard of 1 million yuan.
“Add in the portion that will eventually be refunded, and the actual tax you need to pay will be even lower.
"This plan can be regarded as a new version of the Tweet Order in some form...
"You don't have to worry. After the continuous split, manufacturers will lose economies of scale. Of course, large factories and commercial banks are government-owned.
“The more detailed the private manufacturers are, the more stable the entire market will be.
“Just like the agricultural era, in the early years of a dynasty when the whole world was home to farmers and small landowners, society was much more stable than in the late years of the dynasty when there were big landowners and tenant farmers everywhere.
“You can also use this method to transform the folk clan-like manufacturer management method into a commercial management method.
“Several heirs can all own equity, and they can hand over the equity to the government-owned manufacturer as inheritance tax.
“However, the entire factory itself can still continue to operate fully.
"It's just that the manager has changed from the original owner's family to a professional shopkeeper who the court can intervene in the selection.
“What’s more, the most important purpose of this tax reform is to establish the law.
“The current situation in Ming Dynasty may be difficult to implement effectively, but it can be a goal to work towards.
"In the future, we will focus on the existing tax laws, explore reasonable implementation plans, establish complete enforcement agencies, and slowly put them away."
After hearing this, Zhu Jingyuan nodded repeatedly as if he had a sudden realization:
"I...I really didn't think about this, my thinking really went astray...
“I actually didn’t mean to put myself in the factory owner’s shoes.
"I just think from the perspective of the 'factory' itself.
"I did not immediately consider the issue of separating the ownership and operation rights of the 'factory'..."
Zhu Jingyuan actually read a lot of various news and self-media articles in his previous life.
I do feel that inheritance tax and gift tax are too difficult to collect.
I even considered that the factory that was operating normally would collapse due to inheritance tax.
There was no consideration of other modern means, as well as simpler and more crude solutions that could be implemented in the era of royal power.
Zhu Jingyuan even subconsciously believed that some people claimed that inheritance tax harmed the interests of the middle class.
However, the threshold for inheritance tax in the United States in later generations has been raised to more than 11 million U.S. dollars, and the total gift tax exemption amount is also more than 11 million U.S. dollars. A total of more than 22 million legal tax exemptions are given to children. Asset limit.
Not to mention the assets of the middle class in the United States, which are more than 22 million yuan, in fact, the vast majority of people have negative assets...
The actual starting point in the Ming Dynasty's preliminary inheritance tax plan is directly set at 250,000 silver notes, which is equivalent to 25 million yuan in future generations.
At the same time, land prices and real estate prices in Ming Dynasty were tightly suppressed by the imperial court and could not rise at all.
In this case, families with assets of 25 million can only be the owners of small factories and manufacturers.
It is difficult for self-employed individuals who are doing very well to meet this standard.
Moreover, even if the assets exceed 200,000 banknotes, the actual tax rate for assets below 1 million banknotes is only 10%.
This is equivalent to an asset of 100 million yuan in future generations, and only needs to pay a 10% inheritance tax. The inheritance tax rate in the United States is 40%.
Compared with later bourgeois countries like the United States, this is really conservative and traditional to an extremely high level...
Zhu Zhongliang quickly understood after listening to Zhu Jingyuan's explanation.
Compared with taking care of ordinary workers and farmers, his grandson actually cares more about industrial development.
In particular, the promotion of industries such as aviation, enterprises, and shipbuilding has reached the point of using every possible means.
It is understandable to worry that inheritance tax will cripple factories and businesses that were originally well-run.
(End of chapter)
