Part MMMDCCCXXX: In Tangled Talks
In Tangled Talks
Twenty-Second Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC
The familiar scrape of gilded pen against parchment and the flash of a flame cantrip on crimson wax seals your answer. You may not appreciate being placed in this position without warning, but there are worse places to be. As long as the dukes find no fault or at least take no interest in the matter of the Sword Tax you are content to let it stand and you would be even more content to see it grow, though that you have every intention to keep quiet. If only the rest of your tax woes could be as simple to resolve. You read the results of attempting to get the fey to pay taxes once, then you read it again to make sure you had not missed something and at last you call for a meeting.
Half an hour later you are greeted with a young man wearing wide silver spectacles that seems to swallow his face and the sort of smile that makes it clear he would rather be anywhere but in your company. An undersecretary relatively newly promoted and unless you miss your guess not the person actually responsible for the debacle he has been called to explain.
Thus your answering expression is quite a bit warmer than he had perhaps been expecting. "Could you please explain how it it that we now have a 'system' for taxing the Light Fey of the Reach and the Riverlands which can charitably be described as chaotic to the point where an audit by the Ministry of Taxation called it 'as useful as a fire in a basket weaver's shop'. That is to say, actively worthless at the thing that it is supposed to do," you add a bit more sharply. His fault or not you are not here to hand out medals.
Ethereal Taxes: 5 (Critical Failure)
The man sighs, but he does not drop his gaze. "Well, I suppose you could say it started with looking over the Verdant Vistas. Many of the sprites and spirts they dealt with did not like making the same deal twice, they got bored, so the thought was why not go with the grain of the wood? Get an agreement in principle that debt exists for all the things the state does which they use like safe roads and access to Scholarum benefits, that sort of thing, and then come to agreements with each court or troupe about what they would be willing and able to pay out of a predetermined list which was modeled on the income and capital tax rate. Obviously we had no way to asses assets that were on a different world, but the fey to not lie so it was reasoned that they could be induced to come to a contract and they would abide by it."
In other words like trying to grow a turnip patch in Sothoryos. You bite back a sigh. "Except it did not quite work out that way, did it? What was a reasonable list of payment methods and amounts soon spiraled into so many exceptions and complex deals that all sense of standardized payment was left by the wayside as the clerks set to the task of negotiation tried to get as much out of each court and troupe as they could?" The last words are barely a question.
"Not for themselves," comes the hasty answer. "Only for the realm, only for the treasury... that is, the Ministry of Taxation's coffers."
"I am not accusing anyone of corruption, if that were the case you would be having this conversation with a detective in grey," you cut in. "I am not even accusing the spirits who cut the deals of malice. They are by their very nature showmen and mummers and both of those make great salesmen, but chasing the best deal is not what taxation is supposed to be about. Of all the contracts agreed upon in principle so far nine in ten would not stand in court as a matter of course and it does not matter one whit that the parties involved would never break a bargain. The Justice Department would act of its own accord to ensure that the law of the Imperium remained consistent, predictable and inclusive..."
"There will likely be backlash for pulling out of so many negotiated contracts," the words are quiet but clear, you mark it in his favor, but that does not come any closer to solving your problem
Attempts at taxing the fey of the Reach in chaos, many are likely to react with anger to the rejection of contracts agreed upon in good faith.
What do you do?
[] Compensate the courts and troupes involved for the inconvenience
[] Assure them that the people responsible for making misleading promises will suffer the consequences
[] Write in
OOC: No deals with the fey have been struck as of yet, but many have been negotiated and unfortunately they have been negotiated poorly.
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