Re: Taxes

<Richard>
> How about some discussion of taxes?  What are the tax rates across
> the Imperium?  How are taxes collected?  What devious methods have
> been devised to get people to "volunteer" some portion of their
> just (or unjust) profit?
>

There is some interesting information about taxes in Trillion Credit
Squardon. There is a section on incomes from planets for a campaign game.
If I remember correctly the revenue was 500 Cr per person modified by
government and state of hostilites. This represents just the naval budget.
(Hence the importance of high population worlds to the factions in the
imperium. I have always presumed that this naval budget is split between
the local, Subsector and imperial navys. In this case the imperium gets
money for its fleet in return for protecting the planet (The only thing
the Imperium seems to do for local planets). This implies that the imperium
gets its cut from the locals, but doesn't care how they come up with it in the
first place. In this case the planetary government can call on Imperial/Subsector
forces to help retrieve tax money from citizens or visitors who are reluctant to
pay.
At 500 Cr per person just for the military (navy), the average family of four
pays 2000Cr per year, then we add in local taxes for the government, which vary
but I usualy use 4x this amount. Resulting in a net Cr8,000 per year. (If I
remember correctly some crew members only make Cr1,000 a month. - They better not
have large families!)
To answer your questions directly. The imperial portion would be the same,
across the imperium, (but the locals may not collect it equally). Taxes are
collected according to the government type of the planet in question.
Deviousness doesn't have to come into it. If you don't pay duty etc. no trading
impounding of ship/cargo, etc. (This does bring into question who the full-time
starship crews pay their taxes to?)

>
> How does a small-time operator deal with differnt governments, taxes,
> and probably weights and measures, as he/she ploys commerce around
> the many worlds?  Is there a widley accepted bookkeeping method?
>
If you are dealing at a starport, the imperial reguations regarding
trade would be used (another service provided to the planet!) And a standard
mechanism for payment of taxes, calcualting weights (eg. Imperial Litre :-)),
and paperwork. If you are dealing outside of the starport, you had better have
a good legal skill. (A good incentive to always use the port facilities, even
if there is a slight charge...)

			-Dan Corrin

By the way. If you calculate the income from the high population worlds, in the
Imperium, a fleet of 11000 BatRons can be easily maintained.

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