"It's very simple!" Anthony spread his hands together, "Indirect tax or direct tax, which tax do you think is easier to collect?" ”

"Indirect taxes, of course." Roland replied without thinking.

"That's the end of it! Indirect taxes are mainly commercial taxes, and the current industry and commerce in the Far East are far from being developed, and commercial taxes cannot squeeze much oil and water, not to mention that your policy is to vigorously support industry and commerce, let alone impose heavy taxes on industry and commerce, so the source of fiscal revenue must rely on direct taxes, such as personal income tax, inheritance tax, and agricultural tax, the most important of which is agricultural tax. ”

Roland nodded in agreement with Anthony's analysis. Agricultural tax is the so-called "collection of public grain", "collection of land", from the imperial province era is the most important tax in the Far East, agricultural tax revenue accounted for as much as seventy percent of the government's revenue, now the government of Kolas replaced the imperial provincial government, but the situation of heavy dependence on agricultural output has not changed.

Anthony leaned forward, crossed his hands on the desk, and looked at Roland across the desk with an unprecedentedly serious demeanor.

"Let me tell you a common sense, taxing peasants is the world's most problematic problem, especially in those poor and remote mountain villages!"

Poor mountains and bad waters out of the people? Roland flashed a proverb from Earth in his mind, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Don't believe it, you can only know how difficult this kind of thing is if you have tried it yourself!" Anthony said smugly. His own experience in the Far East is precisely the best footnote to the above conclusion. In the eyes of the upper echelons of the holy city of Yashan, the Far East is a ghost place where poor mountains and bad waters come out of the people.

"Don't get excited, I can understand your struggle."

Roland, of course, knew that taxing in the countryside was no easy task. Especially in the Far East, where the commodity economy is underdeveloped, rural life is still stuck in the "Middle Ages", some peasants have never even seen gold coins in their lives, and occasionally trade with others by bartering, in this extremely backward economic environment, it is difficult to collect monetary taxes, and if they cannot collect monetary taxes, they can only collect agricultural products such as grains, and the transportation and preservation of grains are very troublesome, which is a major factor that leads to the high cost of agricultural tax collection.

The high cost of imposing agricultural taxes is also reflected in the enormous risk of violent resistance, which is common to all direct taxes, and of all direct taxes, the tax that takes food rations away from the peasants is the most likely to provoke violent conflict.

"Just two years ago, there was a vicious incident in the Magic Mountain Province of the Yashan Empire, where the tax collector could not collect the grain he was entitled to, could not find the owner of the farmland, and burned the wheat fields that had not yet been harvested in a fit of rage." Anthony's face was gloomy.

"And then?" Roland asked curiously.

"Then the angry tax collector and his entourage who helped him set the fire were beaten to death in the street by the mob of the Magic Mountain, which was even more angry......" Anthony shrugged, "It just so happens that the very bad-tempered tax collector is a cousin of mine, so it is even more worth taking precautions, does the new government in the Far East have any plans to raise taxes on farmers?" If so, I advise you not to go to the countryside to collect taxes yourself, otherwise you will taste the power of a sickle and a pitchfork. ”

"In fact, we are not going to raise taxes on farmers, on the contrary, we are going to reduce agricultural taxes significantly." Roland said calmly.

"Poof!" Anthony was so shocked that he squirted out a mouthful of biscuit crumbs, "What are you talking about...... Lower agricultural taxes?! ”

Roland poured him a drink, then explained to him why he had made such a decision.

"During the reign of the Yashan Empire, extremely high land taxes were levied on the peasants of the Far East, sixty percent of the harvest in the rice-producing areas was paid as agricultural taxes, and thirty percent of the land in the grain-producing areas were also paid, and the average tax rate was as high as 40 percent, and such a high land tax was still a great burden on the landlords and yeoman farmers, not to mention those tenant farmers who rented land and the serfs who had completely lost their land and had to depend on the landlords. This is also the main reason why the fertile fields of the Far Eastern Great Plains are not fully developed. ”

After the establishment of the Kolas regime, the national policy was based on agriculture, and what was taken in advance must be given first, and it was also necessary to start by reducing taxes to support agriculture.

"I have submitted a tax reduction bill to the Cabinet, in principle, based on the existing agricultural tax, the main crops will be halved, and after the implementation of the new tax law, rice-growing areas will be levied 30% of the field tax, and wheat-growing areas will be levied 10% and a half of the field tax, and the adjusted agricultural tax rate will be about 20% of the annual output on average."

"Reducing the agricultural tax from 40 percent to 20 percent? You can figure it out! Anthony scoffed at Roland's tax cuts, "A drastic cut in agricultural taxes means a shrinking of fiscal revenues, which will force the government to lower budget spending, cut infrastructure and public services, and the ambitious construction plans you have made will be put on hold because they do not have sufficient financial support, and the people of the Far East, who are full of expectations for your new government, will be disappointed that their lives, especially those of city dwellers, have not improved." Isn't this a result contrary to your original intention of reducing the tax burden and improving people's livelihood? ”

Anthony's criticism was quite sharp, and instead of being annoyed, Roland felt the same way. In particular, Anthony's analysis of a series of social problems caused by the decline in government revenue after the tax cut reminded him of the fiscal and taxation system of the Ming Dynasty in China on the earth—the light taxation system set by Emperor Hongwu out of sympathy for the people at the bottom, which later became the bane of the Ming Empire's financial system. The so-called "lowering taxes and hiding wealth from the people" sounds good, but in fact there is a big contradiction - there is no finance without taxation, and without finance, the state cannot lead infrastructure construction and cannot establish a social security and welfare system, and the lives of the people at the bottom will be very painful. This "people" is not another people, and everyone with a discerning eye knows it.

However, Roland will not be choked on food, and he will not give up his original intention and hold back because of Anthony's fierce criticism.

"The burden on the peasants in the Far East is already very heavy, and they really cannot withstand the oppression of heavy taxes, and we need to win the support of the vast number of villages, and we need to win the favor of the peasant brothers in exchange for their support for a series of rural governance policies implemented by the new government, so the principle of reducing taxes for the peasants cannot be shaken, and this is a political task." The cherry brandy had already bottomed out, and Roland took out a bottle of the best vodka from Beowulf from the wine cabinet and filled the empty glass in front of Anthony, "What does political mission mean, I don't think I need to explain more." ”