The Transplant And Preliminary Development Of The Stamp Taxation In China 1903-1927

In the year of 1624,the Netherlands initiated the Stamp Tax.It was levied upon contracts, account books and property right certificates in the business.When it was paid by the taxpayers to the appointed places,the government would stamp on the contracts,certificates with the rollers carved patterns,so it was called Stamp Tax.Because it was imposed a little and collected a lot,and its collection method was simple and convenient,it was replicated by many countries in the Europe and the America.In 1854,the Austrian government reformed the Stamp Tax greatly.They printed a kind of revenue stamps that like the stamps used by post offices and sold them to the taxpayers to paste on the taxable certificates,then to write-off the stamps by themselves.Thus the Revenue Stamps appeared in the world.And now,in many countries,the Stamp Tax is paid through the method of pasting the revenue stamps on the taxable certificates.The taxpayers must calculate the payable duties according to taxable objects and their rates,buy the enough stamps to paste on the taxable certificates and write-off each one all by themselves.The possibility that the Stamp Tax introducing to China lies:along with the development of commodity economy in Modern China,the economic exchanges were increasing frequently, so the contracts,account books and all kinds of property right certificates had been used widely in this process,and these were the prerequisites of levying this tax.At the same time,the financial crisis in the Late Qing Dynasty were intensified,so charging the Stamp Tax to make up the financial shortfall became very necessary.On the other hand,the Stamp Tax was collected conveniently,and the tax source was sufficient,as it was to say,the most convenient to the people and the income being very broad,so the feasibility of collecting the Stamp Tax appeared.That was why it became the first tax introduced to China in the process of learning from the West.When the Beiyang Naval Forces was established in 1888,it was facing the serious funds insufficient.Li Hong-zhang,the Governor of ZhiLi province and Minister of the Northern Trade,suggested levying the Stamp Tax to solve the urgent need.This suggestion was supported by Yikuang,the Minister of the Naval Forces,but it was refused by the Prime Minister Amun.This was the first proposal of imposing the Stamp Tax in China,but it wasn't adopted and had no effect to the Government.After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Boxer campaign,the large amount indemnity pushed the Late Qing government to the edge of financial bankruptcy.Under such circumstances,the proposal of imposing the Stamp Tax was put forward to the Government once again.After the long-term discussing plans of many representative personages,such as Chen Bi,Wu Ting-fang,Liu Kun-yi,Zhang Zhi-dong,Lu Shu-fan and Sir Robert Hart,etc, the Ministry of foreign affairs and the Ministry of Finance of Late Qing began to study the Stamp Acts of the westerns,and drafted the Stamp Tax seven approaches,then reported the Qing government on May 28,1902.This seven means then became the legislative foundation of Chinese introduction of the Stamp Tax.After several months,Yuan Shi-kai had drafted the Eight Approaches,Eight Regulations and Ten Prohibitions and reported the government to charge the Stamp Tax on December 30,1902.They were allowed to try out on January 4,1903.Hence,after more than 10 years of discussing,the Late Qing dynasty government had finally completed the theory and the thought preparation of levying the Stamp Tax,and started the first short attempt.Since the officials and the public of that time knew little about the Stamp Tax,in addition to the important government ministers' opposition,the first trial only lasted less than 100 days,on April 11,1903,it was ordered to close down.The second trial had been a four-year brewing.In this period,under the influence of the Late Qing new deal and the preparatory constitutionalism,more and more people participated in the imitation of the constitutional movement,and knew more about the Stamp Tax.Under the tremendous pressure of training forces and raising funds,the government and the public requested to levy this tax intensely.But people's opinion were various,the oppositions were incessant,and even royalty Minister did not completely agree.On the basis of the repeated appraisals,the Ministry of Finance drafted 15 Regulations and 12 management regulations, and were approved by the Qing Government on December 8,1907.This act stipulated that all localities should begin to impose the Stamp Tax after three months when they received the revenue stamps.The revenue stamps were printed completely in April,1909.When shipped back to China from the United States,they were distributed to the provinces rapidly.But as the result of the central authority not strong,the provinces were perfunctory to do it.At the same time,with some officials' opposition and many local people's strong resistance,this tax couldn't be carried out widely in Late Qing Dynasty.The Republic of China created,political power changed.According to the legal proceedings,the Stamp act was announced on October 21,1912 by the Acting Great President, and decided to be implemented on March 1,1913.This is the first tax law announced and executed according to the modern legal proceeding in our country.No matter how the afterward political power took their turns,this tax law's main body had been used in the country.Hereafter,the Stamp Act underwent the several times revision and the supplement, the legal system tended to be complete.In this process,the Stamp Act is manifesting the law's inheritance and tending to be consummate,but as a result of the social,political and economical condition's restriction,the Stamp Act had a certain time flaws,and still had the very big improved space.Because of the loss of the extraterritoriality and tariff autonomy,the collection of stamp tax presented a serious phenomenon:it could not popularize to the foreign businessmen and even the Chinese businessmen lived in the foreign settlement.This phenomenon increased the difficulties to promote the Act,and till to the end of Beijing Government,the Chinese and foreign consultation had not yet been completed,leaving National Government a very difficult problem that needed to be solved urgently.In the process of practice,firstly,because the central authorities faced with the serious financial crisis,most Ministers of Finance all regarded finishing system as one of financial policies,including levying the stamp tax,and all of them placed the great expectations on it. Compared with the Late Qing Dynasty,when Beijing Government proposed to levy the tax, they didn't meet many resistance from the internal system.Therefore,the Stamp Act could be continually developed.Secondly,due to the gradual loss of central authority,the regional warlords arbitrarily wlthholded stamp taxes,printed revenue stamps privately and illegally, overissued and over-mortgaged revenue stamps.This phenomenon made the tax system severely damaged and ultimately attributable to the unsystematic.Thirdly,the stamp tax system increasingly chaotic made the production and livelihood of the people inconvenient.No matter it was the tax collection or the tax inspect,it was disgusted by the community.Many people in the various places opposed it intensively.Especially under the leadership of the Chambers of Commerce,which organized the boycott of the Government's,played the leading role in enabling the country of checks and balances of power,and it made the Government more difficult to gain the social resources when it was in the instability.It also reflected prominently that the civil society strength became formidable gradually.That was a transition period,the Stamp Tax entered the Nanjing Government with its confusion.Under its regime,the tax system would be gradually improved.Through the two times trials in the Late Qing Dynasty and Beijing Government's practice, the stamp tax system gradually became complete,and known by the people,but because of the loss of central authority and the local people's resistance,the taxation result had been micro all the time.