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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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DragonParadox said:
A Dearth of Death, a Wealth of Taxes ​

Twenty Ninth Day of the First Month 294 AC

Ultimately the decision is not a hard one. While it is unfortunate from the perspective of your infiltration that the Goldcloaks will have less power in King's Landing, you have time to spare until the first legionary boot touches the shores of the Seven Kingdoms and the Three-headed Dragon once more flies openly. Royal Garrison or Goldcloak, you will deal with the gate guards one way or another, whereas Bloodraven's position on the Usurper's own Small Council is far too valuable to risk over this. Who knows, you might even profit from the tensions such a change will stir in the long run. For now you turn your gaze back to internal matters...

***​

"How did you find the Eastern Flatlands, General?" you ask the still somewhat worn general, the crimson of his cloak turned a shade darker by the dust of his past duties.

"Hot, sullen, and full of idiots who need to see a dragon to believe just how hot things can get for them to stop flirting with treason," the general replies. "I think they got the idea in the end, but I would not be surprised if the robbers and would be rebels move on to greener pastures. There's a lot of resentful magisters out there far from cities or the sea who think they aught to be kings of their own bloody fiefs, and they resent us like bile under the tongue for taking away their slaves and adding insult to injury by putting former slaves in the armor of the legion that they have to sit up and respect."

"Some will learn to live with it... others won't," you conclude darkly. Thankfully, there are other ways to curb the worst of their power than keeping a mailed fist on their shoulder.

"The new Tax Code?" he only half asks. "Aye, I've heard about it. You wouldn't believe how much I heard about it." He chuckles a little. "Some nights I'd wake up to Alinor muttering about it in her sleep. Must have done some good though. She finished it this month... well, her and half the clerks in the realm and the bloody Sealord of Braavos." the general shakes his greying head. "Some days I can't believe we're here. Keep expecting to wake up back in Braavos with someone telling me I ran a fever. Only reason I don't give it more credence is that I'm no poet or song-smith to make up the sort of things we've been living these last few years."

Enforce Martial Law in the Eastern Flatlands -> Success

Speaking of Braavos, news from the Secret City is not all good. It will take another month until the local Scholarum branch is ready to receive its first hopeful initiates, as differences in training methods and norms for the conduct of arcane students have to be smoothed out, but Ser Gerold was not mistaken about the tax code...

The person who compiled it all into a single tome, three feet square and one foot thick in a cover of drake leather that could serve as a decent shield in a pinch, must have been a Braavosi. It is the sort of humor one finds among the canals, particularly for the bankers and persons of means oft accused of being dour, but which are in truth most often biding their time to do something like... well, this. Presentation aside, the tax code is a marvel of accounting. One might almost call it art if you did not think professors from the Academy of Fine Arts would protest long and loud. It sets down a clear accounting for taxes that must be paid to the crown by everyone, from small farmers to what remains of the great Latifundia, from vast merchant companies to local governments in all the myriad of forms they take.

It does not actually account for all local taxation, merely sets rules on what kind of local taxes can be imposed by the various lords and governors of the Empire. The sheer amount of rat-holes plugged is staggering. It is not only the royal coffers that will swell from local lords and cities no longer being able to replace lost tariffs with commensurate taxes in other places or other such tricks. The poorer and developing provinces will see less of an increase for the moment, but it is good that they are building their finances on a solid foundation.

Imperial Tax Code (62/60)
Establish Higher Learning Institution in Braavos (13/20)

All Imperial Provinces with Wealth of 7+ Gain +1 Wealth from Tax Reform; All Provinces with wealth of 15+ gain +2 Wealth

Still, for all that the tax code plugged the flaws of the patchwork of old laws and new you were functioning on before, there remains the question of what philosophy of taxation to impose on the Imperium as a whole going forward?

[] Flat Tax

[] Progressive Tax

[] Keep it Mixed

[] Write in

OOC: Right now you have a mix of flat and progressive taxation depending on local conditions the product or service being taxed etc... with a lot of tax loopholes plugged up, hence the across the board increase in wealth. It's not that there is more wealth in the economy, but that you can more easily tax it. Not yet edited.
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Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

That's a very nice effect for implementing our new tax code. 😲

I love the chapter title, too. So punny!
 
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[X] Progressive Tax

I thought that we had voted on this before, being more specific about wealth and income taxes
 
On another note, I think we should vote for Progressive taxation because these will be the taxes imposed by local nobles. We know how amazingly economically uneducated they can be. A flat tax runs the risk of crushing the poor and destitute (and is unfair to boot) : let's not trust our Westerosi nobility with them!
 
Another contentious vote!

More seriously, IRL the only semi-convincing arguments against progressive taxation tend to be "it'd be hard to put in place" or "we think a flat tax would bring in more money and the government needs funds".
Neither of these two issues is a problem in this quest (administrative difficulties are offscreened, we're already rolling in money), so... Why not go with progressive taxation?
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Another contentious vote!

More seriously, IRL the only semi-convincing arguments against progressive taxation tend to be "it'd be hard to put in place" or "we think a flat tax would bring in more money and the government needs funds".
Neither of these two issues is a problem in this quest (administrative difficulties are offscreened, we're already rolling in money), so... Why not go with progressive taxation?
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Greed? :V
 
Guys, can y'all point me to our vote regarding our taxation policies? I want to refresh my mind with whatever legislative (or is it executive) law that we impose.

And anything regarding our immaculate and peerless bureaucracy would be a nice read as well.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Another contentious vote!

More seriously, IRL the only semi-convincing arguments against progressive taxation tend to be "it'd be hard to put in place" or "we think a flat tax would bring in more money and the government needs funds".
Neither of these two issues is a problem in this quest (administrative difficulties are offscreened, we're already rolling in money), so... Why not go with progressive taxation?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Progressive taxation is the way to go. Best way to maximize income for the state, and we can finally stop funding the Imperium solely through looting (as fun as it is).
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Another contentious vote!

More seriously, IRL the only semi-convincing arguments against progressive taxation tend to be "it'd be hard to put in place" or "we think a flat tax would bring in more money and the government needs funds".
Neither of these two issues is a problem in this quest (administrative difficulties are offscreened, we're already rolling in money), so... Why not go with progressive taxation?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There are in favor of flat taxes, I can elaborate qhen not at work. It is too technical though
 
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