Resolution on Provisional Tax Rules

(November 28, 1931)

1. Taxation is the principal source of state revenue and expenditure. In accordance with constitutional provisions, the central government shall abolish all land taxes, grain levies, miscellaneous taxes, exorbitant levies, and likin duties imposed by the Kuomintang warlords, and implement a unified progressive tax.

2. The unified progressive tax shall levy only a single tax on all sectors. The principle of levying, aside from placing the burden of taxation on the exploiting classes, shall be resolved on the basis of class principles, so that the exploited classes and the masses of the most destitute strata are exempted from the obligation to pay taxes.

3. At present, owing to the circumstances of the revolutionary war, the inability to link all Soviet areas across the country into a contiguous whole, and many other special conditions, the agricultural tax can only take the main produce as the standard for levying. All by-products are temporarily exempt from taxation. The agricultural tax rate can only be set to begin at a standard above what is required for essential subsistence, with rates progressively increasing according to the amount, and those falling below the standard are all to be exempted. Rich peasants shall be taxed more heavily; the threshold for initiating the levy shall be half that for poor and middle peasants. Having laid down this principle, the provincial governments shall determine the agricultural tax rates in accordance with actual local conditions.

4. At present, for the purpose of developing the economy in the Soviet areas, export and import duties on commerce and factory tax on industrial products are temporarily exempted.

5. These tax rules shall come into force and effect as of December 1, 1931.

Chairman of the Central Executive Committee
Mao Zedong

Vice Chairmen
Xiang Ying, Zhang Guotao