So what's the tax policy like in your setting?

Isn't this a reference to some quote of his where the lewd fat fucker bitched about JRRT's prose or something?

I can get if people think Tolkien is staid and a little voluble, it is, but what makes the fat one think he is any better or even on the same level as Tolkien?

Depends on the polity and district

People calling him the American Tolkien obviously.

But Tolkien finished his work and killed Germans.

only fat people pay taxes

>Do you really want this tv show to be your legacy?

>Daenerys in Dance with Dragons
>Classic example of a foreign queen molding an ancient culture to her own idealistic vision of reality, with disastrous consequences for both the economy and social order.

>Daenerys in Season 6
>I will break the wheel, Mereen went from impoverished to booming in half an episode with no explanation why, watch as I say something in a cheesy low voice while looking smug, do you like my CGI dragons?

Monthly donations of power and memory cycles from the populace to the ruling government, with occasional 'emergency' donations from 'undesireables'.

Nonexistent. There are no countries or kingdoms, population is divided into small villages that live in a form of tribal anarcho-syndicalism.

GRRM's killed at least a few German Chocolate cakes

What if someone betrays the NAP?

Then the McWarlords and Burger Kingpins step in

They get gang-fucked by the rest of the village.

Nobody will betray the NAP because the NAP is a holy institution!

GOD DAMMIT DON'T TRY TO RUIN THIS, DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE.

Americans are apparently really desperate to have their Tolkien, I don't know.

What if the person that betrays the NAP has like, three burly friends that want to betray the NAP too?

Do remember the rest of the village is either concerned with itself or, like most anarcho-syndicists, limp-wristed cowards who can only fight unpopular losers under the auspices of a controlled government (like Antifa.)

THe protagonist kingdom is more a federation where each lord runs things in much a different way from each other so there's a simple 10% tax in the forms of goods and or money

Then some chap with 4+ burly friends give the would-be NAP betrayers a DIRT NAP.

depends on your profession.

That's why you need child soldiers and TOW Missiles and recreational Nukes.

I honestly thought we were really desperate to have our Shakespeare.

>I didn't know we had a king, I thought we were an autonomous collective

Whoever has coined the most widely used turns of phrase in the contemporary period is our Shakespeare.

So... Mark Twain?

Liniana takes 20% across the board. The Elves don't technically have "taxes", just a "voluntary" tithe to the state on behalf of the Empress, may she rule eternal.

The Death Knights ask only for a portion of the dead and discretion when dealing with outside merchants, etc. Honestly, it's probably the best deal since in return they provide protection and many needful things for scratching out an existence at the far end of human colonial expansion.

In terms of influence I'd argue they have one in Robert Howard.
Mark Twai- Beat me to it.

Whatever's most useful to high fantasy heroics.

>Suck my dick, you fat pervy hack.

>they can afford more than basic necessities for survival?
Raise the taxes! they can afford it!

>killed Germans
WW1 Germans don't count, but the dude definitely deserves props for surviving the shitshow that was the Somme.

As it's a low tech setting the way we do taxes just isn't doable there, so it's a general tithe.

Basically it's 1/10 for income, small hamlets and the like might pay yearly as a group.

Often, as it's a highly agrarian society, the tax men from the King and the regional lord come around foaling time/harvest and take a portion of what you have. They split it. Lords and king are responsible for religious tithes. The common people just see to the houses of prayer and take care of the holy people's needs, essentially.

>WW1 Germans don't count
yeh they do, both in terms of military capacity and evilness

every county is audited once every 3 years by a royal accountant.

based on these reports between 20%(peacetime) and 65%(war time) of the estimated value of a years production(or a comparable quantity of currency) for the county is expected to be paid to the capital, additional taxes may be levied by the land-lord of the county to pay for local municipal resources(constables, magistrates, harbors, road-cleaners, maintenance of county armsmen etc.)

failure to pay the capital tax results in revenue agents coming in

if they cannot extract the tax difference or "vanish mysteriously" then a contingent of soldiers is sent in with an auditor.

if the auditor doesn't have an amendment to the previous report(this guy had a small epidemic and shit got out of hand he gets a tax break) and the taxes cannot be found then the local ruler must either pay again from his personal coffers, face execution, or sacrifice a family member starting with a spouse and then a randomly chosen child if they have any.

talk about one or another of those then. I suspect OP is just curious about different ideas of taxation.

>setting
It's going to depend on continent, dominant culture, nation, state, and then municipality. Which one do you want to know about?

Explain why 45 won't release his returns then

It's from an interview in which (amongst other things) he criticises Tolkien for not giving the reader an in-depth analysis of Aragorn's policies. This is a failure of realism, and thus a stain on the work.

Realism is also the basis of the criticism of the "Tolkien model" of conflict (Dark Lords vs. the forces of good in which civilisation hangs in the balance) adopted by LOTR's many imitators.

Relevant extracts:
tolkiensociety.org/2014/04/grrm-asks-what-was-aragorns-tax-policy/
Full article:
rollingstone.com/tv/news/george-r-r-martin-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140423

It's quite staggering how he can simultaneously miss the point entirely and smugly act as if his own magnum opus fantasy series doesn't have a setting that runs on nonsense.

He doesn't. The quote in question is just him saying that his work is nothing like Tolkien's because they each focus on different things and that comparing them is pointless.

Howard or Frank Herbert could make a grab for the title really. Both made works that profoundly changed the way their respective fictions were written from there after.

flat tax at 17%

Most of human civilization is the Solar Sovereignty, a direct democracy/anarchist leaning interplanetary state extending out of the Solar System to nearby extrasolar colonies.

'Taxes' are treated as labor needed to maintain necessary infrastructure and modern conveniences, and is divvied out by the Division of Labor - the sole 'government' agency outside of the elected Executor's assets. Everyone in the sovereignty is given up to 15 hours a week of basic maintenance and housekeeping on rotation. Otherwise, people are left to their own devices.

Yeah and obviously in addition to all the other stupidities of that quote, there's the fact that the whole story took place before Aragorn was even on the throne. He's bitching about the lack of details in a sequel that doesn't exist.

He's used that quote many times over the years. Actually, his big hobby horse was whether/how Aragorn was going to drive Orcs into extinction. And, no, I'm pretty sure that he knew Tolkien wrestled with the redeemability of Orcs and also had origin stories to the orcs that didn't involve them going through a childhood. His point was that Tolkien should have had more grey on grey morality and relativism because it's edgier and therefore more realistic.

It's not really that Tolkien went over his head. It's that I don't think he likes or agreed with what Tolkien had to say.

Anyway, for a number of reasons related to bookkeeping and enforcement, not to mention the entire feudal system, medieval tax systems were pretty straightforward overall. What got intricate were tariffs and fees-- often prohibitively so.

>tax policy
>IMPLYING

In my kingdom, you have 3 choices;
1. Become a farmer, laborer or other function and pay a small percentage of your income in taxes throughout your life.
2. Serve the kingdom unpaid for 5 years in the military then never have to worry about taxes again and retain your gear and get posted as a guard for another 5 years with standard pay then you are allowed to do as you wish with no taxes
3. become an adventurer. you must recieve a writ from the king. you must pay a sum of at least 5000 gold within your first year and a sum of 1k after that for your career until you declare yourself retired. Serving the kingdom in times of need waives the annual payment for that year.

Eh, I can kind of understand his criticism if only because it means that writers really aren't trying and instead are producing stuff that really doesn't stand out and doesn't have any of what Tolkien put into his works.

Just like in real life, whenever the kingdom needs money, they ask for a tax or """voluntary""" loan from the people.

Of course, one of my kingdoms has a parliament, and the king needs to get parliamentary approval to do this, which is a source of friction.

Good Governments: Either 2.5% Flat tax or Progressive
Bad Governments: 90% Flat tax

There is a tax policy. Every part of it that involves the PCs is automatically handled by computers. The PCs have more urgent things to worry about than taxes.

Isn't that just Prof. Barker of Tekumel fame?

hadn't really thought about it tbqh

>reporting your income to the authorities
>reporting anything at all to the authorities

new to the sprawl I take it?

Nobody messes with the IRS

the annual tax of every land holder is calculated by the regulator of their district. It is dependent on the production/harvest and several other factors. (for example, natural disasters, wars)

taxes aren't particularily high and the average joe can very much enjoy the fruits of his labour.

then again it's only that way for a society of Elves that live in a Land of plenty and very low to no corrutpion in the system, think of it as a confucian ideology, without any of the corrup chinamen trying to make money on the side.

who cares

>be PC
>be off adventuring and amassing wealth
>spend a fortune on wine and food
>come home after years
>get put in jail for not having paid taxes on your incomes

some GM you are.

>lol who cares about how societies work, let's just go kill stuff

Fantasy setting: People do work for the city for the priveledge to live in relative safety.
This rarely affects the players.

Sci fi setting: All economical transactions are directly taxed, like 1% go to the government.
The players pay this tax, too.

fucking exactly only replace kill stuff with literally anything

you could be playing a campaign about running a kingdom and taxing peasants and the details of said tax policy still wouldn't fucking matter in the slightest

I do.

Well the largest political group in my setting is a theology so no tax just tithe but there is hardly a difference.

No taxation without representation.

Not important enough to be mention besides a few plot important parts likes yours

Heavily armed tax collectors armed with cudgels show up to help low-level adventurers flush with loot save the local economy from the dragon that is underpaid tax collectors.

Depends when I care it matters.

Approximately but in space.

Ben Franklin surely has some claim here.

>The players pay this tax, too.
Do you mean the characters? Or do you mean the players? Because that's a genius thing for a GM to do.

My current setting is the site of 5 states and two formally lawless territories.

Tierra Dorada: No functioning federal government. Local municipalities levy whatever taxes they feel they can to pay for whatever services they need. Counties serve as de facto states within the republic, united only by geography and common forms of government. The largest and richest city, Ciudad Esmerelda, serves as the de facto capital, with its associated county services filling many roles usually considered the realm of the federal government.

Rotoxa: A feudal monarchy. The Imperial Revenue Service, administered by the del Gato family, also serves as the Royal Mint of Rotoxa. The Emperor has the freedom to exchange tributes for favors with the various noble houses (las Familias), and formally has control to raise and lower taxes on the provinces though in practice this relationship relies on good relations between the Villalobos and del Gato families. Taxes on luxuries are quite low and those on income and transactions quite high, a regressive that, along with racial friction, is contributing to the Rotoxano Revolution.

Lotruna: A republic. Formerly a province of Rotoxa. As part of their cultural and sociopolitical rebellion against their former monarch, the legislature of Lotruna has seen fit to raise luxury taxes as well as charge tariffs on trade with Rotoxa, their closest neighbor. Economic disaster.

The Painted Lands and the Wyldlands are, notionally, unoccupied and lawless territories, though both have a number of varied societies within them:
The bands of the Dine, for example, elect a member of their tribe to be the chief and all interpersonal debt is considered a matter of credit. Inter-band debt and trade is handled on a barter system.
The Newe are widespread and their forms of government and economy likewise varied. Generally, though, they practice a form of collectivism, at least in the western tribes. The eastern tribes split off over time to become...

... the Nemesis Nation, notionally a number of nomadic states but functionally a decentralized imperial republic with a sophisticated system of credit and slavery. The Nemesis are unrecognized by most governments as a formal state, nevertheless they're able to impose their own borders and collect their own taxes, both within the "lawless territories" as well as inside Lotruna (thanks in no part to Lotruna's own post-war problems). Each tribe in the Nemesis Nation is bound by blood and oath to certain practices which include a maximum amount of tax and slaves to collect. As an expansionist empire, the Nemesis currently takes whatever it can and whatever it wants in order to fund and support its growth, growth which has already eaten a fifth of Lotruna and almost half of the Wyldlands.

Tambaku: Agrarian feudalistic republic. Taxes in Tambaku are primarily an annual direct tax on slaves and land, a system which benefits the rich slave-holding class as much as it benefits the poorer subsistence farmers. The abolition of slavery has done little to change this system, as slaves are now recognized as indentured laborers who owe their employers a debt equal to their income in exchange for their room and board.

Chelta: An industrializing republic. Chelta collects annual income taxes, which (thanks to its growing middle class) has made a number of public services possible, even as it leads to conflict with certain members of the upper classes. Coming out of the war, Chelta was bleeding due to conflicts over the sudden expansion of the federal government to support a national army, but as things have settled into peacetime, the populace has come to enjoy the benefits of public education and infrastructure.

Every time I see her dragons I think "Oh hell what catastrophe happened in the previous ep?"

...

...Is this by the Confirmation Can guy?

>I shot the mailbox again, on purpose
Every single time.

Theft

feudal

Evil feudal dictatorship run by a particularly powerful red dragon.
He maintains control by being more powerful than everyone else in his kingdom combined.

>So what's the tax policy like in your setting?
Take the most idealised tax policy for a Socalist Monarchy with a minor Capitalist bent then have the Royal Family exempt along with any and all that they deem to be excused.

Roughly that.

I can't imagine it ever coming up in a game, but...

The big not-Novgorod city state don't tax their population. Each district is in charge of taking care of their own district, leading to the common worker's districts being run-down, unpaved messes of mud and open sewers. The merchant's district on the other hand are paved, with broad tree lined streets, public fountains and statues on every corner as the merchants compete to be the most extravagant spenders.

In the country you are either a freeman or a serf. Serfs own nothing, as they are the property of their lord naturally all they produce is the lord's property. Legally they are goods, not people. What they get is what the lord sees fit to give them out of the charity of his or her heart. That is the bare minimum to survive, and they better be grateful for that too.

A freeman can own his own property. Common expenses are few as there is very little infrastructure to take care of, and most things are decided by a village council meaning there is no ruling class to support. A village of freemen will usually have a common understanding with other nearby villages and towns that they band together for mutual defense as needed, or the village will pay an agreed upon amount to the local lord or city state in exchange for defense in times of trouble.

I think GRRM is missing the point here. 'Ruling is hard' is a fair enough point, but that was never what Tolkien's books were about. He is calling LotR out for not being what he wants it to be, which strikes me as really awkward.

After sixty and nine years of bloody, costly war ended in the formation of the Coalition of United Chartered Kingdom States the Single Unified Collection of Coin pact was signed. Thus the Neutral Tax Reclaimation office was founded where the boarders of all coalition states met.

Tax Holdings Inquisitorial Corps Collection agents now move freely though any border relentless pursuing the mandated fifteen percent of wealth outlined in the pact.

This has resulted in the Neutral Tax Reclaimation office forming a sort of commerce hub which is now it's own city state in all but name.

Non existent to plot hook.

Fuck knows.

>Not GMing a game about a lich commiting blasphemic tax evasion.

FINISH THE BOOKS
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Sorry, got another 5 Blog posts to write :^)

Well they killed Summer because the direwolves were eating the dragon budget.

Feudal and imperial.

Each lord charges his lieges mostly in species and labor, up to the duke which must pay the senate in cash. In turn they have the privilege of governing their lands as they see fit, judging mild and medium crimes, and voting on their senate representative.

There's also a grain tax which feeds the capital and regions suffering from famine.

About two dozen duchies must give their top knights to recompose the legions each year. Which ones are going to do so always leads to lots of political bickering.

Baronies answer straight to the emperor, which is pretty much the top general and thus receives soldiers, weapons & armor, public slaves, raw materials etc, as seen fit to defense and planned expeditions. He must demand extras from the senate during the year if necessary, or use the war treasure, which is mostly loot and thus not so easily convertible to hard cash.

Sunset found her squatting in the grass, groaning. Every stool was looser than the one before, and smelled fouler. By the time the moon came up she was shitting brown water. The more she drank, the more she shat, but the more she shat, the thirstier she grew, and her thirst sent her crawling to the stream to suck up more water.

Specify a realm within the setting, George. Or call me back in a week when I have the comprehensive 90 minute lecture ready.

Its amazing how this paragraph displays GRRM's prophetic abilities, since it's clearly a metaphor for the books and their readers.

George Lucas would be envious of this poetry