Taxation is one of the main sources of a country's finances, the amount of taxation directly determines the degree of dryness of the country's money bag, to a certain extent, it can also be said that taxation directly affects the operation of an empire, the tax problem, is always an empire's indescribable pain, once the tax problem occurs, it will affect the national finances, and the empire will collapse.
Taxation, not only a major event of a country, but also related to the responsibility of every citizen, it is said that as early as the Xia Dynasty, when the civilized country appeared, the tax system has sprouted, and since then, successive dynasties have been continuously improved, land has land, population has a tax, commercial activities have a commercial tax, all of this, all-encompassing, almost covering most of the activities of human society.
According to the reason, in the face of a powerful state apparatus, it is very difficult to escape the collection of state taxes, but there are two countries in ancient and modern China and abroad, one cannot collect taxes, one cannot collect taxes, the one cannot collect taxes, the One cannot collect taxes is the Ming Empire, the American Empire cannot collect taxes, one China and one outside, one ancient and one modern, which makes me wonder why taxes are so difficult to collect? Hello friends, I am the history of the green shirt bomb, this article is exclusive and original, without permission, please do not reprint, like friends can click to support oh ~
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01 Daming who can't collect taxes
In the last years of Chongzhen, the northern border was seriously troubled, the internal peasant revolts were constantly raging, the state finances were seriously tight, and the Chongzhen Emperor, who was the emperor's honor, lowered his stature and was determined to borrow money from his courtiers, which was officially called donation, which also had precedents in ancient times, such as the han Wen Emperor's period of implementing the loss of su baijue, the essence of which is to use the state credit to borrow money from the people, somewhat similar to the national debt, of course, in ancient times, it was given titles and other powers.
The Chongzhen Emperor sacrificed the face of the Nine-Five Emperor to borrow money from his courtiers, and this money was not for his own selfishness like the Jiajing Emperor, but to cope with the crisis of the country's border problems, it can be said that he had common interests with the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu, so did the Chongzhen Emperor borrow money in the end? The money was borrowed, but it was a hundred and eighteen thousand miles away from the result that the Chongzhen Emperor expected. Chongzhen set the level of donation for this purpose, thirty thousand taels is superior, and what surprises people is that no one in the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu can achieve this achievement.
At the beginning, Chongzhen had great hopes for his father-in-law, and secretly set a small goal of 100,000 taels in his heart, and even more constantly added officials to the knighthood to hint at it, hoping that Zhou Kui would play this leading role, but what? Zhou Kui finally only took out 10,000 taels, Chongzhen was disappointed, sent someone to urge, Zhou Kui actually went into the palace and her daughter Empress Zhou cried poor, Empress Zhou took out 5,000 thousand taels of body for her father to donate, as a result, Zhou Kui secretly hid 2,000 taels, the remaining 3,000 taels donated out of trouble, and finally Zhou Kui donated 13,000 taels, this wave of operations, I have to say, this is a master!
The Change of Koshin
In the end, Chongzhen only borrowed less than 200,000 taels from his courtiers, so did the chongzhen courtiers really have no money? After Li Zicheng destroyed the city, he plundered a total of 70 million taels, and Zhou Kui, the abbot who only donated 13,000 taels of silver, took the initiative to hand over all the family's property, and there were dozens of carts of treasure in total, and the silver alone was as much as 530,000 taels.
The real lack of money is the emperor, is the national treasury, the Ming Dynasty feng Menglong said in the "Jiashen Chronicle", chongzhen fell at the time of the fall of the state treasury only 2300 taels, the hall of chongzhen emperor was so poor that he sold gold and silver utensils, even the copper pots on the main hall were sold to maintain the cost.
So, the question is, why did the Chongzhen Emperor's treasury run out of money? Or pull the timeline forward a little further, the problem of lack of money seems to have always plagued the monarchs of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, from Jiajing to Chongzhen, and the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty boiled down to the fact that the central government of the Ming Dynasty could not collect taxes.
Q version of the Ming Emperor
In order to collect taxes, the Wanli Emperor personally went down and sent tax collection teams composed of trusted eunuchs to all parts of the country, such as tax supervisors and mining supervisors, but this move immediately caused an uproar in the whole country, and the anti-tax struggle in various places was surging up, although many of these eunuchs took the opportunity to do wrong, but the precedent of the Ming Dynasty sending eunuchs to various places has long existed, why did the Wanli Dynasty break out a fierce anti-tax struggle? The key is still that tax word, behind this is all white flowers of silver, the Wanli Emperor's idea of collecting taxes to enrich the internal funds finally ended dismally, winning the name of a tyrannical and tyrannical emperor who fought with the people for profits. The emperor of the Apocalypse, who had no money, could only hide behind the scenes, and entrusted the government to Wei Zhongxian's hands, and with the help of the hands of his cronies, he fought against the increasingly powerful clique of civilian officials, which led to the outbreak of party strife since Jiajing, and the courtiers were constantly fighting and no longer had the heart to govern the government. The Chongzhen Emperor was industrious and frugal, honest and incorruptible, and after he ascended the throne, he was dry and sleepy, and he was dressed and fed at night, with the intention of reorganizing the mountains and rivers, and he had made great achievements, but the general trend had gone, and he was powerless to return to heaven, and in the final analysis, the imperial court still had no money!
Ming Emperor Q Version
Did the Ming Dynasty really run out of money? Obviously not, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the tide of great navigation has arrived, the Ming Dynasty people hold the world wealth code, porcelain, tea, silk and other things sell well all over the world, people sit at home, silver sea comes, huge amounts of silver pour into the people, raising the price of the Ming Dynasty, aggravating the central financial crisis, can show that the central government of the empire does not have much benefit in this global trade, or because of the old problem, can not collect taxes!
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the two tax laws were implemented, and due to the chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the new imperial court rectified the household registration and cadastral, and the implementation of the two tax laws was orderly, and the tax payment was guaranteed. However, no matter how good the system is, it cannot stand the test of time, and for a long time, the Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di' father and son.
Daming style
During the Ming Dynasty, many preferential treatment was given to the readers, especially the privilege of exempting them from hard labor and taxes, so the ordinary people rushed to surrender, the Ming Dynasty raised the clan relatives like pigs, so these clan relatives continued to expand, the land under the name also increased, the clan and the clan these privileged classes, linked to each other, enjoy the famous and justifiable power not to pay taxes, is the biggest obstacle to the Ming Central Government to collect taxes, according to the "History of Ming" recorded that the country at the end of the Hongwu period of the national taxation land was 8.5 million hectares, 100 years later this number dropped to 4.2 million hectares, more than half, it can be seen that it is rampant, this is still only the land, the commercial tax is even more so, behind the Ming Dynasty can do business is not a family family, want to collect commercial taxes, undoubtedly with a knife to cut meat, so the rhetoric of competing with the people will be very loud, this point in the Ming Dynasty's repeated policy of banning the sea and opening the sea, the Manchu Dynasty secretaries of state who understand the huge profits of marine trade, the record of the Song Dynasty city shipping division on the Yongle Canon is not written, But no one dares to open this mouth, the reason is that without it, the strength of the warrior clan along the coast of Jiangnan is too strong, and these clans are making a lot of money on their own, and they don't want any behemoth to join at all!
There are too many privileged classes, too few taxpayers, and if the vicious circle continues, the Ming Dynasty will naturally be less and less able to collect taxes, and eventually it can only collapse! The Han family personally buried the last Han dynasty, and also completely buried the possibility of China eating the dividends of the Great Navigation Era!
The Age of Discovery
02 The U.S. Empire That Can't Collect Taxes
In the United States, there is such an unspoken rule, no one should mess with the IRS, and anyone who owes money can be owed, that is, money cannot be owed to the IRS (Note: Internal Revenue Service, IRS).
There is a joke that a couple is living on a desert island, looking around, deserted, and when they are sad, their husband asks: Have you paid personal income tax? The wife replied: "Handed over." The husband then asked whether several taxes had been paid, and finally the two of them were combined, and there was just one tax that had not been paid, and the two were happy, because the IRS in the United States would find them and take them back.
This story shows on the one hand the large number of taxes in the United States, and on the other hand, it also shows the strength of the US Tax Office, and it seems that there is no case in the American Empire that taxes cannot be collected.
U.S. Internal Revenue Service
Think of it this way, so you don't understand how high-level people in the United States can reasonably and legally avoid taxes? In fact, there is still an unspoken rule about paying taxes in the American Empire, that is, only ordinary people will pay taxes at a glance, and the real rich and aristocratic even if they pay taxes are very little money.
So, how do they justifiably and legally avoid taxes? According to some publicly available information, there are several means that can be known to us at present.
The dollar trap
The first way, offshore. As early as the 1920s, Swiss bankers began to advertise with great fanfare around the world that they could help the rich evade taxes, and since then the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands, which ordinary people have never heard of, have entered the list, constituting a huge tax haven, providing safe, tax-free, unregulated and confidential financial services for the rich.
For example, the Cayman Islands, in 1978, obtained a royal decree stipulating that the Cayman Islands is forever exempt from the tax obligations of the Cayman Islands, so the Cayman Islands do not levy any direct taxes on individuals and companies, but only symbolically charge a small amount of annual management fees, the island's taxes are only import taxes, stamp duties, business registration taxes and other simple taxes, for many years there has been no personal income tax, corporate income tax, capital gains tax, real estate tax, inheritance tax and other taxes, at the same time, foreign exchange in the Cayman Islands free entry and exit, That's why the Cayman Islands are known as tax havens.
Cayman Islands
The second way, trust. Through a family trust, the settlor transfers ownership of the property to the trustee, and legally, the property included in the trust is already owned by the settlor and does not belong to the estate and does not have to pay inheritance tax. The funds paid by the trustee of the family trust to the beneficiary come from the appreciation of the trust property and are not the income generated by the investment transaction, so there is no problem such as paying income tax, thus avoiding tax problems.
The third way, charity. Every year we can see that many rich people are keen on doing charity and donate a lot of money, of course, many of them are sincerely doing charity, but there are also many Rich American people who fish in muddy waters, and they see the characteristics of charity without paying taxes, which is used to avoid taxes legally.
The fourth way, loss. This belongs to the high-end play, the United States to pay taxes need to be individually declared, there are rich people who want to report the company's losses, to avoid high taxes, this aspect of the public information is less, interested partners can search for themselves.
The above is just some public information, interested partners can search for themselves, warm reminder, paying taxes is the obligation of every citizen, do not evade taxes Oh ~
Distribution of Wealth in the United States, Graph Source Network
03 Tax crisis
There is a saying in the Ming Dynasty that only the central court cannot collect taxes, and there are no poor scholars.
There is a saying in the United States that there is no tax that the US Tax Office cannot collect, but the rich are too good at evading taxes.
If it is explained that the great empire cannot receive taxes because of the legal tax exemption of the clan relatives, then the American Empire cannot collect taxes under the legal tax avoidance operation of rich businessmen and politicians, why is it so difficult to collect taxes?
America
Sima Qian said in the "Chronicle of History and Cargo Breeding": The hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, and the world is all for profit. Marx also said that once there is a proper profit, capital is bold. If there is 10% profit, it can guarantee that it will be used everywhere; if there is 20% profit, it will become active; if there is 50% profit, it will take risks; for 100% profit, it will dare to trample on all human laws; with 300% profit, it will dare to commit any crime, even risk hanging. If turmoil and strife bring profits, it encourages turmoil and strife. The smuggling and slave trade is proof of this.
The nature of the capitalist is greed, risking loss, earning a lot of wealth, how can the greed of human nature be willing to hand over wealth so easily? Social wealth is like a scale, one end is the rich nobility, the other end is the poor people, the rich and nobles have less taxes, in order to maintain the rule of the empire, can only increase the taxes of the poor people who seem to have no ability to resist, and then the clay people still have three points of fire, 2000 thousand years ago, the prince of Daze Township Chen Sheng Wu Guang's voice will xiangning has a kind of cry, how many Qianshou people's voice, but also the voice of the times.
This is where the pain of the empire lies, want to collect taxes from the rich and nobles, the Ming Empire can't collect it, the American Empire can't collect it, it wants to increase the taxes of the common people, the Ming Empire did so, and as a result, the country is full of fire, wolf smoke everywhere, and finally fell into the anger of the Qianshou people, walked into the long river of history, became a wave, and disappeared.
Daming Fenghua Zhu Di
So, we would like to ask, what will be the end of the American Empire? We don't know this, the times are evolving, we will wait and see.
Throughout the history of human development, history will never be simply repeated, but always in some keyword nodes with the same rhyme foot, in the fog of history is still unconscious, once you have walked a piece of history, when you look back, only to realize that history is always so similar!
The evolution of human society over thousands of years has emerged from the forest, gained a foothold in the desert and grassland, multiplied and grown in the plain, and completed the complete transformation of nature. For thousands of years, the only thing that may not have changed is human nature, greed for wealth, and the pursuit of pleasure, which has promoted the progress of human society and made human society spin around in a strange circle without breaking through.
Human society seems to be caught in a strange circle, can the American Empire break through this historical cycle? Does the American Empire, which has only a history of more than 200 years of nationhood, really have the political wisdom and social ecology to solve the problems of human society for thousands of years? Everything is unknown.
Eagle sauce
04 Final Chapter
History presents a spiral forward, the evolution of human society for thousands of years, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign, horizontal or vertical contrast, suddenly enlightened, as if the past reappeared, but the protagonist of the story from the ancients to the present, from the Ming Dynasty to the American Empire! There are many reasons for the rise of an empire, but the reasons for its defeat are similar, and many factors are superimposed, which eventually forms the last straw that crushes the camel.
The tao is divided into yin and yang, yin and yang are declining, prosperity will be defeated, only the balance of yin and yang is the long-term way, once the balance of wealth is tilted, what kind of crisis will eventually be triggered, no one knows, after all, when the avalanche comes, no snowflake is innocent.
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