Chapter 518 Tax Reform 3

Chapter 518 – Tax Reform 3
“Oh! I still have to go prepare some materials.” Bernard pulled out his pocket watch and glanced at it, “Why don’t you go to the conference room on the second floor and wait for a while.”

“Okay, go ahead and get busy, I’ll see you later.” Hansel answered, waving goodbye to Bernard.

He ascended the stairs to the second floor and made his way down the west corridor to the conference room, finding a man already waiting inside, the head of the tax office who had stepped into his position only six months ago – Steve Fielding.

However, it was a bit incorrect to say that it was only half a year ago that he assumed his position, because Steve Fielding had already been one of Alda’s tax collectors when Paul’s father, Old Gleeman, was still around, and had been placed under the leadership of Old Ford, who was the Chief Seal at the time, along with several other tax collectors. After the establishment of the Council of State by the present Lord Earl, the work of taxation had not been set up as a separate department, but continued to be under the direct jurisdiction of Old Ford, who was the Chief Steward, and Fielding and the other tax collectors were still under the leadership of Old Ford.

Until half a year ago, Count Greiman felt that the tax work needs to have a separate organization, so the Council of State has an additional department – Taxation Bureau, in the old Ford’s suggestion, Steve Fielding from the many tax officials stand out, was appointed by Count Greiman as the head of the Taxation Bureau.

“Good day, Sir Abbott.”

Seeing Hansel walk into the conference room, Fielding immediately stood up and greeted him, he had great respect for Hansel who came from the king’s capital, Jingyao.

“Good day, Steve. How many times have I said it, just call me Hansel directly, we are colleagues plus friends.”

Hansel responded somewhat helplessly.

“Haha, I’m just getting in the habit of verbalizing it, but don’t worry, I’ve always considered you a friend.”

Fielding chuckled at Hansel, scratching his head slightly awkwardly as usual.

Hansel came and sat down next to Fielding and lowered his voice, “Do you think it’s possible that this meeting will be about finances?”

Fielding replied, “I think it’s quite possible, perhaps you already know that the war in Horn Bay had a great impact on our commerce. Looking at the tax figures from Port Fullan, our own merchant ships in the Northwest Gulf are fine, but the number of merchant ships over in Horn Bay has plummeted by nearly a third compared to last season. As far as I can tell, some have been ordered by their countries to stay in port under orders to await conscription, and some have been conscripted directly into the war.”

Hansel and Fielding chatted up, exchanging their information and opinions.

During this time, one after another people entered into the meeting room, Ford, the chief administrator of the Council of State, Cecil, the head of the Intelligence Department, and Mark Palmer, the head of the Forestry Department ……

To everyone’s surprise, the chief judge of the Lords’ Court, Thomas, also came to the conference room.

Finally, it was the Earl of Alda, Paul Greiman, and the Earl of Bairdine, Myron Garnard, who came to the conference room with Bernard.

The crowd rose in unison and saluted the two counts.

Paul waved to the crowd and went to sit at the head of the conference table, while Myron took the seat to his left, Wakely Ford, the head of the Council of State, sat in the seat to Paul’s right, and Bernard sat at a small table behind Paul’s side of the room as the recorder of the meeting.

“Gentlemen, the main purpose of bringing you here today is to discuss how the finances are balanced.”

Paul introduced the topic of the meeting by holding up a stack of papers and said:

“This is a recent report that I would like to ask you all to look over.”

Everyone in the room then received a copy and everyone quickly skimmed through it.

On it was the revenues and expenditures of the Council of State for the most recent quarter, and as everyone had expected, there was a large deficit.

The reason for this, as everyone could guess, was because of the situation in Horn Bay.

The Earl had called everyone here, it couldn’t be that he was going to redistribute the funds to the various departments, could it? Everyone thought so in their hearts. If the adjustments were made earlier, then there were bound to be departments whose funding would be cut.

Everyone was rapidly making mental notes in their hearts, pondering on how to emphasize the importance of their own departments, so as to avoid Earl Gleiman’s big knife cutting into their own heads.

“Cough!” Seeing the tightly frowning faces of the crowd of officials, Paul heavily cleared his throat and exclaimed, “I’ve already discussed this with Myron and Supervisor Ford, and it’s not appropriate to change any of the current expenditures.”

Whew! The crowd breathed a long sigh of relief.

“Since cutting back on expenses is not in line with the times, what we need to do is to open up the sources. The coffers of the Council of Government must be expanded.”

Cecil, the head of the intelligence department, thought in his heart, “That’s fine, just reinstate those miscellaneous taxes that were repealed in the past few years.”

But the Count’s next words surprised everyone in the conference room:
“We have discussed it over and over again, and we feel that the current tax system is out of date, especially the package tax system.”

The tax package system was a tax system that was common amongst the human race – the king or lord did not directly collect taxes from his own people, but instead entrusted it to someone in the local area and gave the amount of tax he would collect, such a person was known as the tax package person. Such a person is known as a tax collector. The tax collector collects taxes from the people in his area of responsibility in the name of the king or lord, and then hands over to the king or lord the amount of coins that satisfy the tax, and the tax collector can add a portion of the tax to the amount he originally set out to collect, and the extra portion will be kept by the tax collector as a reward for the hard work he has put into the meal.

That’s how it was supposed to work, but ……

“I’ve heard it said.”

Indignation rose to Paul’s face.

“Pay enough for the lord, leave what keeps the people alive, and keep the rest for yourself. My God, listen to you-what is left to keep the populace alive, is that the word of a man?”

“Just imagine how much the so-called tax-packers make in the middle.”

Paul stood up, waving his fists and pacing beside his seat
“So, what do you mean?”

Hansel asked out loud.

Paul said, “Abolish the packet tax system and have our tax office send people directly to the countryside to collect taxes.”

Abolish the tax package system? The crowd’s hearts then steeped in shock.

Cecil asked in surprise, “That …… Count Sir, what if it causes a backlash …… I mean what if those tax packers resist your new policy? I don’t think they will sit back and watch their interests go down the drain for nothing.”

“It’s up to them! What reason does his clan have to continue to keep their privileges?”

Paul shook his fist in mid-air.

“The so-called tax packages are nothing but a compromise in the face of the backward development of social patterns.”

“In our Arda, Bairdine, and Emden, such compromises are completely unnecessary.”

“In the past few years, the roads to the towns have been built, and there are government affairs officers stationed in the villages, so we can completely collect the taxes ourselves without having to leave it to others.”

(End of chapter)