The sudden airborne arrival of the tax department not only interrupted the government's interpretation of the law, but also sucked the fuel out of the cauldron, leaving the officials feeling somewhat at a loss.
They really did not expect that such a change would occur. Although they all knew that the imperial court had ordered that the Taxation Department would be established in Hezhong Prefecture, they all predicted that the Taxation Department would not arrive until next year at the earliest and would not be able to operate until the year after. When I got up, I never thought that it would be at the end of this year. When did the efficiency of the court become so high?
The battle over the purchase tax is essentially a power game between the government and the imperial court. This is also the first time that the government has directly challenged the imperial court's decree. Although this is not the first time they have had conflicts, they have always had conflicts in the past. Under Yuan Jiang's operation, the government chose to turn "crisis" into "opportunity" and use the imperial court's decree to implement the government's new policy.
For example, Salt Debt was born out of the dispute between the two.
But this method always makes officials feel aggrieved. Although they have not lost much in terms of political performance, in terms of power, they feel that they have been suppressed by the imperial court, but they cannot counterattack the imperial court. Holding back a sense of resentment.
However, the imperial court's further aggression made them feel that there was no need to endure this anymore.
So they chose to fight back by buying taxes.
But this day was not as good as others' calculations. The arrival of the tax department directly caused their counterattack to be aborted.
The fundamental reason is that they have lost the power to collect tax.
this.!
It's really embarrassing.
The government has no right to decide whether to implement the puma tax, so how can it argue with the imperial court? The key tax department directly stated that they want to abolish the puma tax. Regardless of whether they did it intentionally or not, this decision will definitely be beneficial to the imperial court. .
Because the imperial court wanted to ban the purchase tax, but they didn't agree.
In addition, Chen Ming's attitude made the officials feel very uncomfortable. They believed that Chen Ming, like the public security bureaucracy, did not belong to the entire bureaucracy and was relatively independent.
If this is true, it's a disaster.
However, everything in the officialdom is based on interpersonal relationships, so they immediately investigated Chen Ming to see which faction this person belonged to.
It would be okay if I didn't check, but I would be even more stunned if I checked.
It turns out that Chen Ming is a warehouse manager in the Neizangtreasury, specializing in serving the emperor's private money. He was recently promoted to a tax envoy and has nothing to do with the entire bureaucracy.
This doesn't belong to any faction, it's the emperor's people.
It seems that the tax department is directly subordinate to the emperor, which is by no means groundless.
And Chen Ming seemed to really not intend to get close to them, or even establish a friendship with them as colleagues. He directly released the official documents from the court and immediately took over the tax collection power of Hezhong Mansion.
The first thing Chen Ming has to do is to resolve the imminent lawsuit over the purchase tax. After all, he has taken over the power in this area.
He ignored the quarrel between the government and the imperial court, directly hired Lu Bangxing, and appealed to the imperial court with a piece of paper, expressing his dissatisfaction with the imperial court's previous decision, which meant that those people were exempted from tax.
The reason is that now that the government has changed people, all tax collection matters are now managed by our Taxation Department, and our Taxation Department believes that the imperial court's decision is unfair, so we need to appeal.
Of course the imperial court readily accepted it.
In fact, whether everyone believes in the imperial court's judgment is not the key. It is impossible for every judgment to convince everyone. The key is whether everyone accepts the entire set of procedures of the public prosecutor and the law.
For example, if the government is dissatisfied and chooses to continue the appeal, even if the appeal is successful and Zhang Fei's judgment is overturned, Zhang Fei is very supportive, because what Zhang Fei pursues is not just words, but hope that everyone will use the procedures of the public prosecutor, prosecutor, and the law to solve the problem.
In fact, the government took the right path this time. This was indeed what Zhang Fei feared most. He repeatedly made sure not to settle old accounts and was also worried that this would happen. But unfortunately, in the end, he failed.
Now that the Taxation Department is willing to resolve disputes by appealing to the Imperial Court, the Imperial Court will certainly be willing to give you another chance.
After learning about the incident, the procuratorate also took the opportunity to disgust the government and publicly stated that it would withdraw the lawsuit against the government and contact the Department of Taxation directly.
On the surface, withdrawing the lawsuit against the government seems to be a good thing for the government, but in fact, it tells everyone that the government has lost this power and there is no point in competing with the government.
They are all outdated, and the Tax Department is the upstart in Hezhong Prefecture.
This made Wei Yingfang and the others very angry.
Are we no longer even qualified to be sued?
Is there any royal method?
But the fact is that the Public Security Bureau, the Procuratorate, and the Judiciary no longer interact with the government, but instead all choose to hand over to the Department of Taxation.
Imperial Court.
"Tax Commissioner Chen, please take a seat."
"Thank you."
Chen Ming bowed his hands and sat down.
Zhang Fei looked at Chen Ming and saw that this guy had a serious face, which was very similar to Li He from the Capital Taxation Department. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Are all the people in your Taxation Department so unsmiling?"
Chen Ming was stunned for a moment, then forced out a smile and responded to Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei couldn't bear to tease him anymore, his expression changed, and he said seriously: "I'm really sorry, this plan can't keep up with the changes, so you have to arrive early. I don't know how well prepared you are?"
Chen Ming said truthfully: "There are still some lack of preparations now. The information we have at the moment can only temporarily deter them. But fortunately, taxation will start next year. We still have at least half a year to do it, so there should be nothing." questionable."
"wrong."
Zhang Fei shook his head and said: "Strictly speaking, you still have almost a year to prepare."
Chen Ming looked at Zhang Fei doubtfully.
Zhang Fei took out a copy, handed it to Chen Ming, and explained: "In the past, the government's tax collection method was to use private forces as much as possible. For example, this purchase tax is to use businessmen and wealthy people to collect taxes, and For example, the two taxes are collected by the head of household and Li Zheng in the village, and this obviously does not apply to the tax department.
The Taxation Department collects taxes through independent declarations. If they were collected separately, it would be impossible to achieve this due to the human and material resources of the Taxation Department. At the beginning, many ministers were not optimistic about the independent declaration of tax exemptions in Beijing. In the end, it was reluctantly completed, and it took several months, so I worked out a system for the Department of Taxation to unify taxes.
Of course, this entire tax system must be coordinated with the Service Exemption Law, because the existence of the Service Exemption Law not only allows taxes to be determined according to different income levels, but at the same time, the Service Exemption Law can also exempt all people from labor and military service. Turn into money.
Based on these two points, all taxes can be combined into one and each family pays taxes according to their different annual income. "
Chen Ming did not question Zhang Fei's proposition, because Zhao Xu told him before he came that he would obey Zhang Fei's instructions in everything, and he would just execute it. So he just asked: "So the tax department is short of manpower and proposed this method to the government?"
"Yes."
Zhang Fei nodded.
In fact, Zhang Fei had already written to Zhao Xu about this idea of unifying taxes. He just said that the specific tax rate had not been calculated at that time, but he won Zhao Xu's approval.
Because this self-declaration is very troublesome to review, you have to know that most people are illiterate, and you have to send people to help them fill in the tax returns. If you have to check two or three types of taxes every year and fill in the tax returns three or four times, how can you have so much manpower? The tax department may not be able to do this all year round due to the lack of material resources, and the key people do not have the energy to do so.
Unifying all taxes into one and formulating different tax rates according to different incomes is very consistent with the tax collection method of the Taxation Department.
People only need to declare once.
They also only need to investigate one tax.
But if you look at it from a deeper perspective, it is actually to collect taxes from those wealthy households, and this is entirely due to Wang Anshi's exemption law.
Because Wang Anshi's exemption from service law included everyone, including officials, monks and Taoists, female households, etc. Although their privileges were not completely abolished, it was very crucial to give them taxes.
But this is really one of the reasons. The second is that the exemption tax is based on different incomes. When the taxes are unified, this attribute will be added to all taxes, and the rich will have to pay more money.
These are all legal basis.
If there was no exemption law, Zhang Fei would not be able to do this. The imperial court must abide by the law.
Chen Ming asked again: "Then what do we need to pay attention to?"
"Check the taxes."
Zhang Fei replied simply and clearly: "There will definitely still be people who evade taxes, but now it is different from before. Now it depends on the evidence. The Taxation Department must get conclusive evidence before it can proceed with the lawsuit.
Of course, I will promulgate new penalties for tax evasion, cancel some tortures, and then increase fines. As for fines, the tax department and the finance department will divide the fines 70-70, and the government only needs to keep 30 percent, and the rest will go to your tax department. "
Chen Mingdao: "This is used to motivate those people to check taxes."
Zhang Fei's eyes flashed with praise, and then he nodded with a smile.
Chen Mingdao: "Then they will definitely check the taxes of the rich."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "I didn't say that, and I suggest you don't say that either."
Chen Ming nodded in understanding and said: "We have called the tax collectors from Hezhong Prefecture who are proficient in various tax collection methods into the Taxation Department. Tax inspections should not be a problem, but in the face of these wealthy people and big landowners, what should we do? How to enforce the law.”
Zhang Fei said: "The police department has trained a force of 500 fully armed elite soldiers for the Taxation Department. When your Taxation Department officially opens, the police department will hand over these elite soldiers to the Taxation Department. This elite force is enough Destroy any large farm in Hezhong Prefecture. There is only one type of people you need to pay attention to, and you must report to me first before you can decide whether to take action."
Chen Mingdao: "What kind of people?"
Zhang Fei said: "Even for those general families, their soldiers are experienced in many battles. At present, the tax department may not be able to defeat them, but people like them can be solved through political means. In short When facing hard things, use softness to overcome hardness; when facing soft things, use hardness to suppress softness.”
Chen Ming nodded and said, "I understand."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Regarding the lawsuit over the purchase tax, do you need me to send someone to assist you?"
Chen Ming shook his head and said: "Thank you very much, President, for your kindness. We can solve this problem."
With that said, he stood up and said, "If there is nothing else, Chen Ming will leave first."
Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment, and then stood up, "I don't know much about official etiquette. Should I set up a banquet to cleanse the dust of the tax envoy Chen?"
Chen Ming cupped his hands and said: "The president of the court is so flattering. How can Chen Ming be so virtuous as to be able to accept such hospitality? In addition, there are many matters waiting for me to handle at the Taxation Department."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Then let's do it next time. I'll send the tax envoy Chen."
"President of the Grand Court, no need to send me off. I'll take my leave."
Chen Ming bowed again, then turned and left.
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded. After Chen Ming went out, he smiled and said: "This is like a working person. He is much more reliable than those officials. Well, it seems that the inner warehouse is really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." ah!"
In fact, if Wang Anshi and Sima Guang were to hold the position of tax envoy, they might not do well. They, officials with Jinshi background, only have the world in their eyes and would not care about a little profit. However, this is obviously not suitable for taxation. This matter must be done by the officials.
The inner treasure house was specially designed to help the emperor manage money and fields. Without two brushes, it was impossible to enter the inner treasure house.
As soon as Chen Ming left, Xu Zhiqian came into the house and said, "Tax Commissioner Chen has just left. Why don't you keep him here for a simple meal."
Zhang Fei sighed: "He is busy making money and doesn't have much time to entertain me."
Xu Zhiqian smiled softly, as if to say, I believe you. Then he asked: "How was your discussion?"
"There was no discussion, I just told him some things."
Zhang Fei suddenly breathed a long sigh of relief, "The tax department is here, and we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It's not easy!"
Xu Zhiqian said: "The tax department is here, what does it have to do with our imperial court?"
Zhang Fei said: "The relationship is serious. Without the tax department, the public prosecutors and the law will never be able to get on the right track. Because most of the current conflicts are due to taxation, and our imperial court cannot handle it impartially. Just use this to buy taxes. Everyone knows that they are illegally collecting taxes, but our imperial court gave them the best plan and let them find a way to reconcile.
The most unlawful ones are those who collect taxes, but they are also collecting money for the country. This is the most difficult case for our imperial court.
But now that the Taxation Department is here, what they enforce is the law enacted by our Imperial Court. They collect taxes according to the law, instead of relying on people to collect taxes. Only then can we truly make judgments in accordance with the law. This will reduce the great burden of our Imperial Court. If we are under pressure, those officials will not keep an eye on us every day, but will try to find ways to avoid the investigation of the tax department. "
Xu Zhiqian nodded slightly and said, "What you said makes sense."
Zhang Fei said: "There is more than some truth. Without the Department of Taxation to rectify the tax system, it will be difficult for the judiciary to develop. Because between money and law, the court will most likely choose money. A person who starves to death will not care about the law. Only when The imperial court realizes that the law can generate money, and only then can the public security, procuratorate, and law be truly successful.”
Xu Zhiqian said: "So the success of justice is based on money, not on injustice."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "If it were you three years ago, I would tell you that justice is based on justice."
Xu Zhiqian said: "Why?"
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Because you were still very naive at that time!"
Xu Zhiqian gave him a sharp look and snorted: "I am also very childish now."
Zhang Fei said: "Now it can be called pursuing ideals, because you can at least accept that justice is based on money."
Xu Zhiqian sighed in frustration, "What can I do if I don't accept it?"
"Look! This is a sign of maturity." Zhang Fei smiled.
After Chen Ming left, he immediately dealt with the case of buying tax. Although the tax department had appealed to the imperial court, it only asked the imperial court to withdraw the previous judgment. In fact, the tax department did not intend to litigate with those buying households. Because it is very difficult to win.
Chen Ming still chose to negotiate privately with Puhu, saying that the government was willing to share the burden with Puhu, but Puhu would bear 70% of the cost and the government would bear 30%.
As Erbi, the representative of Fuhu, Li Min also told Chen Ming and others this truth in a realistic way, "We cannot accept a 30-70 split under any circumstances. According to the contract signed by my client and the government, the government is always motivating us. The more you charge, the more you get. My client is in full compliance with the contract with the government. Of course, my client is not willing to let things get to this point. In the end, we can only accept 50-50, with one party bearing half."
Just as Lu Bangxing was about to refute Li Min, Chen Ming suddenly put down his tea cup and said to Li Min: "Go and tell those customers that the reason why we are willing to bear 30% is because our tax department suddenly took over and we hope that the matter can be resolved as soon as possible. No For others. If you are unwilling to accept our conditions, our tax department can bear all the compensation, but our tax department will pursue those households who evaded taxes this year, and we can get more."
Li Min was not afraid of Chen Ming at all, because the imperial court was behind him, and he said very seriously: "You are threatening, I can sue you to the imperial court."
Chen Ming spread his hands: "Who can testify?"
As he said that, he looked at Lu Bangxing very seriously, "Lu Erbi, do you think I'm threatening him?"
Lu Bangxing shook his head and said, "I didn't hear anything."
Li Min was embarrassed for a while, and looked at Lu Bangxing with contempt.
Lu Bangxing replied to Li Min with his eyes, "I'm not afraid of him, it's just that I'm his lover, why don't I still turn to you?"
Chen Ming put the settlement plan directly in front of Li Min, "I am very familiar with these methods of your Erbi, so don't follow me like this. Tell those who are paying for my words, and they will be very willing to do it." Signed."
Faced with Chen Ming's aggressiveness, Li Min picked up the settlement plan and said, "I have also seen the methods of your tax department. My house is just a small door and there is no need for siege equipment. Farewell!"
Then he walked out.
Lu Bangxing stood up and asked with a smile: "Tax Commissioner Chen, how much tax does a bookstore like ours have to pay every year?"
Chen Ming replied seriously: "It depends on how much you can earn every year."
Lu Bangxing suddenly realized that there is no business in the world more profitable than tax collection.
After Li Min returned, he showed Jin Dabao and others the settlement agreement given to them by the Taxation Department, and informed them of Chen Ming's attitude. He also told them that if he wanted to litigate with the Taxation Department, he would be absolutely sure of winning.
When Jin Dabao and others heard this, they were scared to death.
Completely ignoring the issue of compensation, he grabbed Li Min and kept asking, how did the tax department know that they were evading taxes? Do they have any evidence? Will they sue us?
Li Min could only tell them truthfully that he had no idea how much evidence the Tax Department had, but judging from Chen Ming's attitude, as long as they compromised, they should not be held accountable for their previous tax evasion charges.
In this way, Jin Dabao and the others felt at ease and quickly signed their names on the agreement.
In fact, the compensation is not much, so they still make money, not to mention that the government is willing to pay 30%.
The lawsuit eventually ended in a settlement.
The government and households directly paid monetary compensation to the plaintiff, but at the same time the imperial court also withdrew the tax exemption plan. However, the imperial court did not withdraw the ban on the puma tax. Although Zhang Fei also knew that the Department of Taxation would abolish the puma tax, after all It has not been abolished yet, and this process must continue.
But in the eyes of the people, this was another great victory for the imperial court. Everyone noticed the previous attitude of the government and refused to implement it. However, only a few days later, they still obeyed the imperial court's decision.
They do not understand that the Tax Department actually took over the tax collection power, and it was not a compromise by the government.
This is not important. What is important is that the people understand that they only need to pay taxes in accordance with the law. Any illegal tax collection can be resolved through the imperial court.
The imperial court is the father.
This has brought the prestige of the public security organs to a higher level.
However, nowadays, officials are not in the mood to pay much attention to the imperial court or their own face. They are more concerned about the Taxation Department, an official office that scares the powerful in the capital.
Coupled with the tax department's thunderous tactics, the lawsuit was settled in less than three days.
So they invited Chen Ming to come to the government office on the pretext of cleaning up Chen Ming's troubles, but in fact they wanted to find out how the tax department would collect taxes.
"This banquet will be waived."
Chen Ming still had that paralyzed face, and his tone was very consistent with his face. He said, "Everyone happens to be here, and Chen is also planning to inform you of the tax collection principles of our Taxation Department. This also requires the cooperation of the government.”
Cai Yanqing hurriedly asked: "I wonder how Tax Commissioner Chen needs our cooperation?"
Chen Mingdao: "It's very simple, just let those tax collectors come to our tax department to take the assessment, and those who pass will be hired, and those who fail will have to be asked to do other things, and the tax collection rights of household heads and Li Zheng will be revoked. All tax matters are taken over by our Tax Department.”
Wei Yingfang said calmly: "Hezhong Prefecture is not big or small, even the government needs to borrow manpower from the private sector. Do you have so many people in the Taxation Department?"
Chen Mingdao: "Our tax department adopts independent reporting and collects whatever is reported. This does not require relying on too much manpower from them."
He Chunlin smiled and said: "We usually hire people to collect taxes, but some unscrupulous people try their best to evade taxes. If we report it ourselves, can we report a real number?"
Chen Mingdao: "You don't need to worry about this. We have our own way. Our Taxation Department can assure you that our Taxation Department will collect all the taxes in strict accordance with the tax laws.
However, there may be some changes in the rules. We believe that the two taxes consume too much manpower and material resources. In addition, the tax-free ceremony will be held in Hezhong next year, and people can also be exempted from military service by paying money. Therefore, we will combine the taxes into one, and only Once the tax is levied, the government will need to make some adjustments to the use of the summer tax, but the total tax amount will not change. "
As soon as these words came out, all the officials present were stunned.
“All taxes in one?”
"Yes."
Chen Ming nodded, "But these are mainly for some regular taxes, such as deed tax, which are calculated separately. The only difference from before is that every land deed transaction must require the seal of our tax department. For it to be officially effective, the deed tax money will also be handed over to the Taxation Department, and the same is true for everyone."
This last sentence caused the expressions of the officials present to change.
Chen Ming saw it, but he didn't care about the other party's feelings at all. He went his own way: "I know what you are worried about. Officials in the capital have also paid special attention to this. Our tax department will only collect taxes in accordance with the law and declare taxes independently." There is a tax exemption column on the tax form. When you fill out the tax form, you only need to write down your tax exemption amount, and you only need to pay taxes other than tax exemption. If there is no tax, you do not need to pay."
There was silence in the lobby.
They finally knew why Chen Ming refused their banquet. The atmosphere was indeed not suitable for a banquet.
If a few days ago, Chen Ming only hinted that they had to pay taxes, then today's words made it very clear to them that they would definitely receive a tax bill by then.
But asking our officials to pay taxes?
Please straighten your tongue and say it again.
However, Chen Ming told them with his eyes that this was not the humor of the tax department.
(End of chapter)
