Miscellaneous Levies Of Suzhou In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Republic Of China (1901-1937)

Miscellaneous levies as an appellation of specific taxes emerged in the Fiscal clean-up campaign in late Qing dynasty,which were different from regular taxes and out of system.Also,miscellaneous levies shared the characteristics of temporality and informality.In the Republic of China,with the division of state taxes and local taxes deeply,miscellaneous levies were gradually becoming an very important part in local taxes.In 1896,the government started to built the Big road outside the Suzhou city,so miscellaneous levies appeared consequently,which were mainly used as the funds of polices and road maintenance.In Northern Government period,the Suzhou Police Agency and Gongxunjuan Bureau were mainly responsible for the collection of miscellaneous levies.In the period of national government,besides Suzhou Municipal Government were in charge of the collection of miscellaneous levies for a time,Finance Bureau,Construction Bureau,Education Bureau,and Public Security Bureau were mainly responsible for the collection of some specific miscellaneous levies.When Suzhou Police Agency was in charge of it,miscellaneous levies was mainly used as a provincial budget.Gongxunjuan Bureau was in charge of it subsequently,only a small part of miscellaneous levies were used for local business at this time.In the period of national government,miscellaneous levies were mainly used as special funds,such as education,construction,police security and county taxes,which shared the characteristics of decentralization and 'A fixed sum for a fixed purpose' in the use it.In 1934,the government of Wu County started to reform miscellaneous levies from three aspects:unify the collection and management of miscellaneous levies,the abolition and standardization of reserved miscellaneous levies.As a result of this reformation,Department of Taxes Collection affiliated to Wu County government was set up and began responsible for it,which had changed the situation of dispersed collection.At the same time,with the implement of County Treasury,budgets and audits was carried out on miscellaneous levies and it was brought into the county financial system actually.However,"A fixed sum for a fixed purpose" reserved.In the period of scattered collection and reformation of miscellaneous levies,a series of contradictions and struggles were produced upon taxpayers,organization of authorized tax collection.brokers and collection institutions on the abolition and reformation of miscellaneous levies.Construction bureau and education bureau also had contradictions and struggles.In the process of solving contradictions,provincial departments and Wu County government usually had more decision-making power.In the Republic of China,House tax and vehicle license fee had absolute proportion in miscellaneous levies,which reached nearly eighty percent.The proportion of miscellaneous levies used in local business was also different.Special funds used in construction relied on miscellaneous levies most,special funds used in education and county tax subsequently,Public Security Bureau relied on miscellaneous levies least.In the financial system of Wu County,miscellaneous levies had been increasing gradually overall and was the second largest tax next only to land taxes.The change of tax structure reflected the transformation of Wu County finance structure,which from mainly relied on land taxes mainly distributed in rural areas to miscellaneous levies mainly distributed in urban area.At the same time,miscellaneous were mainly business taxes,the increasing proportion of miscellaneous levies reflected the development of commodity economy of Wu County and urban areas had played an more important role in Wu County.