Read Novel Full Chapter 444: Tiered Business Permit ( 3 )
Chapter 444: Tiered Business Permit ( 3 )
After a moment of pause, Wu Dashu said, “For the lowest tier, you need to pay 20 taels of silver.”
“With this permit, you will receive a brown wooden token and be allowed to set up a roadside stall. The size of the stall cannot exceed 5 square meters. The tax you need to pay is 2% of your annual net income.”
“For the middle tier, you need to pay 80 taels of silver. You will receive a red wooden token and be allowed to open 1 roadside stall and 1 small store. The size of the store cannot exceed 50 square meters. The tax you need to pay is 5% of your annual net income.”
After he finished his words, the merchants were stunned. It took them a while to process the information.
“Sir, why does the higher tier need to pay more tax? Shouldn’t the more we pay for the business permit, the lower the tax?” one of the merchants asked.
Hearing this, Wu Dashu raised his chin and replied, “This is called cross-subsidization.”
“Those who earn more should subsidize those who earn less. This way, we will be able to shorten the gap between the rich and the poor and improve economic growth.”
“Although you pay more tax, the size of your store is bigger. With a bigger store, your business will do better than a roadside stall. What’s more, this middle-tier permit allows you to open both a roadside stall and a store.”
“Isn’t this enough reason for you to pay more tax?” Wu Dashu asked with raised eyebrows.
Although the wealthier merchants felt that they were at a disadvantage, they didn’t dare go against the government head-on. After all, it was true that the lowest-tier permit could only be used to open roadside stalls.
Anyone with a brain would know that this tier targeted commoners with limited resources.
Seeing that no one voiced another complaint, Wu Dashu nodded in satisfaction.
“Besides those tiers, there is also a top-tier permit. To obtain this permit, you need to pay 200 taels of silver. You will receive a bronze token and be allowed to open 1 roadside stall, 1 small store, and 1 two-story store.”
“The total size of the two-story building cannot exceed 200 square meters. You need to pay 10% of your annual net income as tax.”
After a moment of pause, he added, “Last but not least, there is the highest-tier permit. This permit costs 500 taels of silver, and you will receive a jade token.”
This time, everyone took a sharp breath. The price for this permit was too high. Even wealthy merchants would need to consider it carefully.
Taking in their expressions, Wu Dashu said, “With this permit, you can open 1 roadside stall, 1 small store, 1 two-story store, and 1 three-story store.”
“The size of the three-story building cannot exceed 600 square meters. You need to pay 15% of your annual net income as tax.”
Finally finishing the introduction, Wu Dashu heaved a silent sigh of relief. It took him a long time to memorize all these tiers yesterday. Fortunately, he handled everything well today.
He looked at the merchants and said, “All of you should consider this matter carefully since one person can only own 1 permit. If you want to upgrade your permit, you need to come to the Magistrate’s office personally.”
When he finished his words, Wu Dashu turned around and walked into the Magistrate’s office.
At the entrance, the merchants discussed the matter with each other and decided to report back to their Masters first.
As for the merchants with smaller-scale venture capital, they made up their minds and applied for the lowest-tier business permit.
While the city was still in the rebuilding stage, those who helped could choose between receiving food or money as their wages.
Those who did heavy and dirty work would choose food since the amount given to them was not small. As for those doing light work, especially women, they chose to be paid in cash.
They were paid 7 wen daily. Although this amount was below the average wage across the kingdom, for the Northeast City, it was high.
When the city was ruled by the barbarians, not to mention getting paid, they even had to hand over their money and food to the barbarians on top of working for free. So, being able to earn money gave them hope for a better future.
The merchants already knew about this matter, so naturally, they dared to open stalls and do business. Now that people finally had money, they needed places to spend it.
With this thought, they cooperated with the officials and submitted their documents for business permits. Now that they had handed over the money and received the receipts, all they needed to do was wait.
At the end of the day, Wu Dashu sent a runner to inform Gao Yan about the progress of the new commerce law. Since the number of people who needed to be investigated was more than 60, he sent 2 squads to handle the matter.
The next day, 50 soldiers split up and went to investigate the locals. The merchants who were living in the nearby villages and towns were also investigated.
The speed of the investigation was fast. In less than a day, the merchants who lived in the city had been investigated. Their information was sent to Gao Yan.
After he read the information, he appointed 1 of his personal guards to oversee the matter. In the future, he would be responsible for handling the investigation’s reports.
To avoid using military personnel for civil officials’ work, Lu Qianxuan ordered Gao Yan to recruit people and establish the city guard teams.
These guards would work for the Magistrate’s office, including but not limited to patrolling the city and investigating merchants.
When the new Prefect took office and cleaned up the mess in the Yamen, the investigations would be handled by the constables.
After the news of the recruitment was announced, many people from the nearby towns, villages, and cities arrived a few days later.
In the blink of an eye, 10 days had passed.