We all know that in modern times, there is a deed tax to pay when buying a house. The specific amount to pay depends on the size of the house and how many houses the owner has in his name. In general, the larger the area, the more houses you have, and the more money you pay.
Actually, it was the same in ancient times. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, they also had to pay deed tax when they bought a house. The tax rate is about 3%.
Let's look at the 3% tax rate probably doesn't feel anything, buying a house is a big deal, and now you have to pay taxes, isn't it too normal to pay some money in ancient times? However, in our contemporary society, there are very few places where the people need to pay money, and the state still has various policies to benefit the people, and the happiness index of the people is much higher than that in ancient times. The harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes in ancient times are overwhelming at a glance.
There was a person named Shen Bang in the Ming Dynasty, who once served as the magistrate of Wanping, and also wrote a book called "Wanping Miscellaneous Records", which is equivalent to the local chronicles of Wanping. The fourteenth and fifteenth volumes of this book mainly record the various harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes that the people of Wanping County, near the imperial city of Beijing, had to bear during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.
Some expenses are very small, for example, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, all the important facades such as yamen and city gates in the county, as well as important temples such as the Land Temple and the God of Wealth Temple, must be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, door gods and peach charms. All of these add up, and it costs one, two, four, and three cents.
During the winter solstice, the Temple of Heaven will hold a sacrificial ceremony, and the people of Wanping need to prepare 50 bundles of "reed handles", and the reeds of the reeds are estimated to prepare 50 bundles of reed poles, each bundle of 50 catties. It is also necessary to prepare 200 catties of incense charcoal, 15 taels of lamp oil, 100 catties of charcoal, and the "foot money" for transporting these things, which is equivalent to the current courier fee.
These things add up to 17 taels, 4 cents, and 5 cents of silver. Counting the money of the previous Spring Festival couplet, it is less than 20 taels in total, and it is evenly distributed to the people of the county, which should not be a big problem. But they have a lot of other expenses, and they are all very expensive.
For example, the royal family had to hold a temple sacrifice every month, and Wanping County and Daxing District shared the cost of the temple sacrifice, and the annual expenses added up to 450 taels of silver. It is equivalent to about 300,000 RMB.
In the imperial examination, once every three years, Wanping County has to share about 1,000 taels of silver, which is equivalent to about 670,000 yuan.
They also have to provide office expenses for various central yamen, such as the Hanlin Academy, the Sixth Ministry, the Inspectorate, etc., a total of more than 30 large and small yamen. Dealing with the yamen, there are too many things to say. The "Miscellaneous Notes of the Wan Agency" does not write in detail how much this money is, but it must be a lot.
In addition, there are common land taxes, ding taxes, customs duties, and at the end of the dynasty, there are horse raising taxes, dog breeding taxes, eagle raising taxes, chicken raising taxes, duck raising taxes, goose raising taxes, pig raising taxes, sheep raising taxes, and cattle raising taxes. Now raising some chickens, ducks, geese, cows, horses and sheep belong to animal husbandry, not to mention paying taxes, sometimes the state will give subsidies, but in ancient times, you have to pay money.
Later, the society was in turmoil, the war in Liaodong was tight, the uprisings in Guannai continued, and the Ming Dynasty government added Liao, Suppression and Training, each of which was real money, and it was to re-loot the people's already shriveled wallets.
In this case, when people buy a house, the 3% deed tax is particularly high?
I don't have any money, so I finally saved some money to buy a house, and I have to charge such a high tax, who can afford this? So some people try to escape. But the government is not stupid, in order to prevent the people from evading taxes, the Ming Dynasty laws are particularly strict.
The "Da Ming Law" stipulates that if tax evasion is discovered, the cane will be beaten by 50 and a fine, and the fine will be half of the total amount of the house payment. This is a very serious punishment, and the result is that there are fewer people who evade taxes, but there are fewer people who buy houses, and the fiscal revenue is still less.
The Ming Dynasty government saw that this was not a solution, so it made changes. Especially during the period when Zhang Juzheng was in charge, Shen Bang wrote in "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanping Administration" that people in Wanping County did not have to pay deed tax when they bought houses in Beijing.
But after Zhang Juzheng's death, all of this changed. In the eleventh year of Wanli, the second year of Zhang Juzheng's death, Shuntian Mansion Yin proposed that residents in Beijing buy houses with a total price of less than 20 taels and do not need to pay property tax. If it is higher than 20 taels, pay 3%.
This policy is similar to ours now, small apartments just need housing, and the tax is less. Improved housing, or people who have more than one house in their hands, have more taxes. It means that people who can afford a big house, or who have multiple apartments, are wealthy and should contribute more to society. People who only need a house don't have much money, and the state should take care of it.
Shuntianfu Yin's suggestion was reported to Wanli, Wanli believes that now that the country is rich and strong, the people are rich, and there must be very few people who buy a house within 20 taels, and there are not many people within 30 taels. You have to buy a house with a total price of 40 taels to be considered a middle-income group.
Therefore, Wanli stipulates that houses below 40 taels do not need to pay deed tax. More than 40 taels shall be paid at 1.5%. However, after the promulgation of this policy, the Ming Dynasty government's deed tax was basically not collected.
The reason is also simple, there are policies and countermeasures, and those who act meticulously in accordance with the laws and regulations are basically middle- and lower-class people. These people don't matter, they don't have connections, they have to pay whatever they want. And these people can only afford to buy a house under 40 taels. Now that it is clear that there is no need to pay property tax, this part of the money will naturally not be collected.
And people who can afford to buy a house of more than 40 taels are more or less connected, and they can evade taxes by virtue of their strength. For example, if they buy a house with a total price of 400 taels, they don't have to pay taxes for less than 40 taels. Then they transferred the house ten times, and each time they transferred a room, it was less than 40 taels, and they didn't have to pay a penny.