DOI: 10.31806/2542-1158-2021-5-4-55-67
УДК 94(47).081/.083
Citizens of fiscal state as fiscal agents: mechanism of the Russian repartitional tax commissions based on the Novonikolaevsk documents of 1907
Kirillov Alexey Konstantinovich
History Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Abstract. Concept of the modern fiscal state serves to designate a state that is concerned not only with the regularity of tax receipts, but also with their fairness. Tax commissions (tax authorities consisting of taxpayers) constitute an exclusive feature of the tax system of a fiscal state at the stage of the introduction of income taxes. Repartitional tax commissions engaged with the distribution of the trade tax between small entrepreneurs were at Russia the first type of tax commissions. The goal of this work is to find out how the repartitional commissions operated to accomplish their main task – to verify the information reported by payers in their tax returns and to determine the profits of each enterprise. Case study is applied to reach this goal. The documents studied concern the work of the 2nd Tomsk district repartitional commission considering complaints of taxpayers about the incorrect determination of their profits at 1907. As result several features of the commission’s work are established. The commission would defend vigorously the figures of profit that it charged to the payers during the taxation process: most of the complaints were rejected. Nevertheless, the commission was ready to take into account newly discovered facts favorable to the payers: in some cases, the figure of the payment was reduced. It is established that both the tax inspector and the payers’ representatives played an essential role in collecting the facts necessary for reasonable decision-making on each objection. Useful information of the taxpayers would be would taken into account due to the participation of taxpayers’ representatives in the meeting of the commission, as well as due to the preliminary collecting of information by the inspector from “trade deputies” and from the “informed persons”. In many cases, they disposed of direct information on the amount of proceeds of the discussed enterprise; indirect indicators were also used. It was due to this cooperation between officials and taxpayers’ representatives that Russia appeared capable of introducing at the early 20th century (in step with the countries of the West) the modern taxation system that let the state with its few tax officials to “peer into the face” of each individual taxpayer.
Keywords: history of taxes, income tax, trade tax, tax office, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, late Imperial Russia.
For citation: Кириллов, А. К. Граждане “фискального государства” как агенты фиска: механизм работы российских раскладочных присутствий по данным Г. Новониколаевска за 1907 г / А. К. Кириллов // Северные Архивы и Экспедиции. – 2021. – Т. 5, № 4. – С. 55-67. – DOI 10.31806/2542-1158-2021-5-4-55-67. – EDN MYIHOC.
References
1. Brewer J. The sinews of power: war, money, and the English state, 1688-1783. New York: A. Knopf, 1989. 289 pp.
2. Daunton M. Just Taxes: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1914-1979, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 406 pp.
3. Daunton M. Trusting Leviathan: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1799-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 438 pp.
4. Glete J. War and State in Early Modern Europe. Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as fiscal-military states, 1500-1660. London and New York, 2002. 277 pp.
5. Kotsonis Y. States of obligation. Taxes and citizenship in the Russian Empire and early Soviet Republic. Toronto – Buffalo – London: University of Toronto press, 2014. 483 pp.
6. Mehrotra A. K. Making the Modern American Fiscal State. Law, Politics, and the Rise of Progressive Taxation, 1877-1929. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 429 pp.
7. Scheve K., Stasavage D. Taxing the rich. A history of fiscal fairness in the United States and Europe. New York: Princeton university press, Russell sage foundation, 2016. 266 pp.
8. Schremmer E. Steuern und Staatsfinanzen während der Industrialisierung Europas. England, Frankreich, Preußen und das Deutsche Reich 1800 bis 1914. Berlin – Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1994. 247 S.
9. Schremmer E. Taxation and public finance: Britain, France, and Germany, in: The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire. Volume 8, The Industrial Economies: The Development of Economic and Social Policies. Edited by Peter Mathias, Sidney Pollard. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1989. P. 315-494.
10. Schumpeter J. A. ‘The crisis of the tax state’, in: R. Swedberg (ed.), J. Schumpeter, The economics and sociology of capitalism (Princeton university press, 1991), pp. 99-140.
11. Seligman E. R.A. The income tax. A study of the history, theory and practice of income taxation at home and abroad. New York: the MacMillan company, 1914. (2nd edition). 743 pp.
12. The rise of fiscal states: a global history 1500-1914. Edited by Bartolomе Yun-Casalilla and Patrick K. O’Brien. Cambridge university press, 2012. 453 pp.
13. Wenkai He. Paths toward the modern fiscal state. England, Japan and China. Harvard university press. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2013. 313 pp.
14. Захаров В.Н., Петров Ю.А., Шацилло М.К. История налогов в России. IX – начало XX века. М.: РОССПЭН, 2006. 296 с. EDN: PYIQCT
15. Кириллов А.К. От подушной подати к подоходному налогу: податные реформы капиталистической России и их воплощение в Западной Сибири второй половины XIX – начала XX века. Новосибирск: Параллель, 2017. 178 с. EDN: YOXUSM
16. Кравцова Е.С. Специфика деятельности податных присутствий в Российской Империи в конце XIX – начале XX века // Исторические вызовы и экономическое развитие России: материалы Всероссийской научной конференции с международным участием. Екатеринбург, 25-26 сентября 2019 г. Екатеринбург: ООО Универсальная типография “АльфаПринт”, 2019. 540 с. С. 217-222. EDN: GGNFFL
17. Марискин О.И., Марискин С.О. Земские сборы с торгово-промышленного предпринимательства России во второй половине XIX – начале XX века (по материалам Среднего Поволжья) // Экономическая история. 2013. №1 (20). С. 22-26.
18. Марискин С.О. Промысловый налог в России во второй половине XIX – первой четверти XX века: по материалам Среднего Поволжья // Экономическая история. 2014. №1 (24). С. 45-49.
19. Новоторцева А.М. Профессиональная деятельность податных инспекторов Тверской губернии в конце ХIХ В.: микроисторический взгляд // Локус: люди, общество, культуры, смыслы. 2018. № 4. С. 25-40. EDN: VSBSOS
20. Петров Ю.И. История становления податной инспекции в Западных губерниях России в конце XIX столетия. М: ЛЕНАНД, 2015. 224 с.