Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 1343 - 767: Fifteen Years Later (Part 2)
Chapter 1343: Chapter 767: Fifteen Years Later (Part 2)
For the Imperial Taxation Department, this is no problem. Their tax collection is sufficient; what is collected is the tax currency itself, which means other places compensate for this tax, resulting in no loss. In fact, many businesses are proactively initiated by the tax department.
Profit is profit, no matter who earns it.
It’s not just them profiting; those trade associations and caravans from Holy Terra have backgrounds too. Everyone has to make money!
The profit from mere price differences is enough to eat well!
This is only one factor, namely that tax valuation is lower than market pricing.
The Empire’s pricing is fixed, but the market is dynamic, which implies the prices of certain scarce materials do not truly reflect their worth. For example, food may not be highly valued but is badly needed in many Nest Capital Worlds suffering from famine, where densely populated areas have insufficient agricultural production, thus requiring large food imports. Even if food prices are calculated at market rates, it is quite economical for places with import needs.
In areas involved in warfare, the Alliance’s armaments are really value for money.
Spaceships, consumer industrial goods… all can be similarly regarded.
Above these two direct arbitrage environments, more advanced financial practices like futures emerge, which veer from reality to virtual, with the Alliance controlling this sector.
The Alliance utilizes Lingze Star for significant trade, among which the two most important strategic imports are population and raw materials.
As development progresses, trade with both the Alliance and Central Empire becomes only one aspect; across various Cosmos Domains and Star Domains within the Imperial’s Eastern Frontier, Northern Border, and Central Territory, they gather towards this place, specializing in business on Lingze Star.
Merchants bring vast amounts of tax currency and supplies to Lingze Star.
They not only trade with the Alliance but also amongst themselves.
The Alliance’s trade center oversees all of this, taking only a trivial ’negligible’ management fee.
A place with such perfect infrastructure and enormous trade volume is rare to find. Also, the Alliance’s honest, transparent, efficient and convenient management service is equally rare across the universe.
The more thriving, the more it forms a scale effect.
All these factors combined nearly make Lingze Star the most prosperous newly-rising trade center in the Eastern Territory.
The Alliance has earned an unimaginable amount of money.
Anyway, according to the team mentioned by Yang Shiwei, which doesn’t have much auditing work and idly tried to calculate, they found the money earned for the Alliance from direct trade profit to trade commissions to service industry revenue might be approaching a trillion.
Truly astounding.
And the possible benefits might not just stop there.
Such a massive trade scale and profit scale benefits not only Lingze Star; many other areas within the Tanggu Star Domain also gain substantial advantages.
Now, Yang Shiwei fully understands why fifteen years ago, the Alliance not only didn’t greed on the money from the Empire to build Lingze Star but rather bit the bullet and invested two to three times the funds through determination to develop Lingze Star.
The return is simply explosive!
Can this be replicated elsewhere?
Probably not.
Other Cosmos Domains are still suffering from massive tax losses, with unclear tax collection, making establishing a trading center on a scale of several trillion bases exceedingly difficult.
Moreover, in the fifteen years, aside from the Empire investing 500 billion tax coins into Lingze Star’s infrastructure, the Alliance Central Government invested over 1,500 billion, while Tanggu Star Domain itself also planned for over 1,000 billion in funding.
With 3,000 billion placed here, which ordinary Cosmos Domain could build it?
Yang Shiwei can only say it’s incredible.
The Alliance created this opportunity back then, captured this opportunity, and had sufficient resources for construction… Quite admirable.
Calculating, eighteen years have passed since the Reyadoces Battle, marking the end of the Iron Armor War and Swarm War; fifteen years since the “Alliance Plan” was signed.
Over these fifteen years, Yang Shiwei has long worked on Lingze Star, acting as the Empire Central and Alliance’s tax settlement location.
As an official of the Imperial Taxation Department, he is a confidant of Prime Minister Xu Fuzhen.
Fifteen years ago, he was specifically assigned as the tax settlement in charge with the Alliance.
To outsiders, as a central official having to frequently travel locally, taking ten months for a round trip from Holy Terra to Lingze Star, indeed arduous, departing long from the Empire Central political stage and the core of power, really not beneficial.
But Yang Shiwei understands this is his stepping stone.
Prime Minister Xu Fuzhen attaches great importance to this sum of money. Work well, ensuring this money stably settles, constitutes great merit.
Indeed, it is true.
During the past fifteen years, he has always been diligent, mainly because the Alliance cooperates quite well, saving much worry, with tax settlements never encountering issues.
And naturally, he was promoted a few years ago, from a director to a senior director.
This position is already substantial, placing within the top hundred in the whole Department of Taxation.
Moreover, this isn’t the end.
Recently, he traveled back once again from Holy Terra to Lingze Star. Upon this return, Prime Minister Xu Fuzhen specifically called him for a face-to-face talk.
Firstly, Xu Fuzhen praised his work achievements over these fifteen years, and also gave him further incentive: within another two years, he could rise to the position of Deputy Minister in the Imperial Taxation Department.
That means his ranking within the Department of Taxation can climb to the top ten.
Yet simultaneously, Xu Fuzhen also gave him a task: when the fifteen-year period arrives, negotiate with the Alliance about tax increase.
Upon hearing this request, Yang Shiwei almost went numb.
Can tax increases be done casually?
The “Alliance Plan” clearly stipulates in black and white, it’s 2.1 trillion.
This is a ’tax package’, a fixed quota.
Oh, now seeing the Alliance developing well, internally thriving, earning a trillion annually just from Lingze Star alone, you think the tax quota determined back then was too low.
What were you doing early on?
Years before, prior to Yang Shiwei’s arrival, he frequently heard certain sayings on Holy Terra.
The general idea was that after pulling the Alliance tax rates to such levels, what rebellion could the Alliance still muster?
I already collected 100% in taxes, how could they have money to fund rebels?
Now realizing things are entirely different, you wish to change the rules, enormously increase taxes.
Is there such a reasoning?
Of course, reasoning or not, doesn’t actually matter.
The Empire Central disregards reasoning very often, not new this time.
However, whether or not to reason, besides face and bottom line that can be abandoned anytime, there are at least two key factors: power, pros and cons.
Tax increase is undoubtedly beneficial for Empire Central, but will the Alliance agree?
Evidently impossible to agree.
Then does that mean confrontation?
Yang Shiwei, as a high official of the tax department, exclusively managing the Alliance’s fund. He knows clearly and precisely, over these fifteen years the money given by the Alliance annually reflects a fluctuation between 6-11% of the total tax collected by Empire Central from local sources.
This is a significant number.
Various monetary expenditures from numerous Empire departments are reliant on this sum.
Can the Empire withstand falling to the point of breaking tables with the Alliance?
No need for warfare, mere decoupling by both parties could be very lethal.
In taxation, a drop of 6-11% revenue leads many departments’ numerous projects to halt.
Without Lingze Star’s business, many big shots within the Empire Central, fiercely profiting from it, may suffer losses.
Can the Empire Central endure just these two?
Moreover, even after hard decoupling, what relation can the Empire initiate against the Alliance?
War?
Boundlessly impossible.
