Taxiation in the Traveller Universe

[markus_d]

The system assumes that a trader pays taxes to the government he is selling the wares only.
Thinking about it this is rather unrealistically to us.
This would mean the government of the selling planet gets nothing at all for the wares.
Or the prices the trader buys the wares for already include this tax. But this would be also strange because they should depend on the government type.

The rules (Merchant prince) also state that a trader pays taxes only on the difference to the base price.
So when a trader buys wares at lets say 25% and sells at 100% he would make a lot of money but does not have to pay anything as tax. Also rather unrealistic.

We will (for our trading tool) use the following changes to this system:

When a trader buys goods he needs to get some data and documentation from the selling trader (or company). It has to include the full name and the imperial tax number of the company. (The imperial buraucracy is the biggest part of the imperium )
Depending on the tech level of the planet this could be in paper form or electronically on higher tech levels.
On the target planet he needs to get the same info from the buyer (assuming that in bigger quantities he does not sell to individual buyers but to a company).
This info is then sent to the imperial taxiation office (located at the starport). Or they come to the ship and collect it before they leave.
This is needed for the tax office to calculate how much is the profit the trader makes with his trades (Selling price minus buying price).
This info gets then sent back to the starting planet via x-boat service.
So every year the imperium can compare all the numbers they collected on every planet and penalize buyers/sellers if they did not pay their taxes correctly.

The problem with the starting planet not getting credit for sold goods we handle with a tax the buyer has to pay instantly on the spot when buying. We assume this tax is 1/3 of the percentage given on the table from merchant prince.
The local seller will collect it and pay it to the taxiation office. It has to be lower than the selling tax because you pay it on the full price and not only on the profit.

What do you think?

 

[alex_greene]

The taxes are transparent, and all the Travellers see in their wallets is the net totals after taxes.

 

[Infojunky]

The taxes are transparent, and all the Travellers see in their wallets is the net totals after taxes.

I like this one.....

 

[allanimal]

The taxes are transparent, and all the Travellers see in their wallets is the net totals after taxes.

I like this one.....

That's how we do it too.

 

[Reynard]

Not personally familiar with it but could the Imperium be run on a value-added tax?

 

[markus_d]

Yes, we assume it should be value added tax. And the percentage should depend on the planet where you buy your goods.

 

[allanimal]

All the VAT rates and fiddly details like that are taken into account by the DMs on the buy and sell broker rolls.
At least that is my assumption.

 

[vargr1]

Yes, we assume it should be value added tax. And the percentage should depend on the planet where you buy your goods.

I figure that buying and selling cargo take place in the Starport, which is Imperial territory. Planetary taxes would only be in effect when transporting cargoes into or out of the starport to the planet. Imperial taxes are built into the trade tables.

 

[DanDare2050]

If your playing a full on trading game it may be worthwhile considering taxation, but not for general adventure. A game with higher order politics, such as a faction driven sandbox does need to care about it. A game with smuggling also needs to know about the taxes and customs duties as that is a significant motivation in some smuggling operations.

Given that taxation, as has been mentioned, is supposed to be factored in to the trade tables then some work would be required to extract that back out to allow for tax model variations, although planets that have exorbitant import/export duties can just be added on to the existing system.

 

[Condottiere]

Taxation is local, so you probably get issued a sales tax number, since a travelling merchant is unlikely to stick around long enough to pay corporation or personal income tax.

Service fees seem likely at starports.

 

[markus_d]

Of course, the starport is imperial territory.
But for sake of simplicity we assume that the goods we buy are produced at the planet where we buy them. And when we sell goods they are for the planet we shipped them to.
(Think about it, it makes no sense you buy goods from another ship for less than the base price. Does it?)
So in both cases a tax to the local governmant has to be payed. (If you don't like this you can turn off taxation completely in our tool)

The original system does not have taxes at all. Guess thats okay for a non commercial campaign.
Right now we concentrate on the "Merchant Prince" rules. Which we recently implemented in our trading tool. So one does not have to do this things by hand anymore.
The tool does all the calculations and everything else for us
We do not play a merchant campaign ourselves, but we want traveller to be the most realistical science fiction roleplaying game and therefore we think a lot about how everything should work to make sense.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

All the VAT rates and fiddly details like that are taken into account by the DMs on the buy and sell broker rolls.
At least that is my assumption.

Hear, Hear!

While at the table the game must be kept flowing. Accounting for every single Cr in expenses bogs down the game. K.I.S,S.

Or: The Imperium want to encourage trade, despite interstellar trade being rather expensive. Hence it takes no taxes or customs on trade, and bans local governments doing it.

 

[Condottiere]

I don't think the Imperium can stop taxation at a local level, they may impose a cap, or set up another insystem colony to encourage economic exploitation of system resources.

 

[xnet445]

In a feudal system the top dog imposes taxes (or levies, scutage, whatever you want to call it) on his vassals, they impose on theirs, etc down the line. IMTU spaceports are like giant duty-free stores, since taxes that affect the players are always local and levied by the dirtside authorities OUTSIDE the spaceport. These taxes vary widely from planet to planet and region to region. If the players don't enter or leave the spaceport with goods they don't have to interact with the taxman, and whatever price they pay for goods is assumed to have the local taxes built in. These fees are collected off screen and the proper percentage forwarded up the chain, all unseen by the players.

 

[alex_greene]

In a feudal system the top dog imposes taxes (or levies, scutage, whatever you want to call it) on his vassals, they impose on theirs, etc down the line. IMTU spaceports are like giant duty-free stores, since taxes that affect the players are always local and levied by the dirtside authorities OUTSIDE the spaceport. These taxes vary widely from planet to planet and region to region. If the players don't enter or leave the spaceport with goods they don't have to interact with the taxman, and whatever price they pay for goods is assumed to have the local taxes built in. These fees are collected off screen and the proper percentage forwarded up the chain, all unseen by the players.

Basically, what I just said.