Old Tax System

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Preface: This used to be the tax system on the whole of Battlemaster, until it was finally replaced by a more realistic and political system in 2007, making much of the information on this page out-of-date. Check Taxes to learn on the current tax system.

Where Do Taxes Come From?

In short, tax gold comes from the people of your realm. They live their lives, make their money, and turn over some of it to the tax collectors. The region commander gets a percentage, and the rest goes to the realm. The realm pays for trades and militia, then divides the rest among the troop leaders. Some additional gold may come from trading, or from the pockets of wealthy troop leaders (those that hold more than 100 gold or 100 bonds are also assessed a tax), but most of your gold will come out of the pockets of the people of the realm.

Producing Gold

Some regions in BattleMaster are wealthier than others. This is shown by Gold ranking for the region, which shows the amount of gold produced at 100% production. Every day, the region generates gold, according to the current level of production, and the region's gold rating. A percentage of that is taken by the tax collectors, and stored in the region.

While the gold is sitting in the region, it can be an attractive target for infiltrators or looters.

Regions without local lords collect only partial taxes, so it is important to have a lord in charge of every region, who can enforce the taxes. Peasants do not enjoy paying taxes, and will "forget" about it if given the chance.

Collecting Gold

Taxes are collected automatically every seven days, or the banker can call for an early tax. On tax day, the treasuries of each region are collected.

Before it can be distributed, the realm has a few expenses which must be taken care of. Militia must be paid, first of all, and the region will even take money from the rest of the realm to pay their troops. Once militia have been paid, then region commanders receive their share of the region's taxes, if there is any gold left over.

If realm control is very low, then some or all of the region's tax gold may be stolen on tax day.

Gold Distribution

The following distribution method was replaced with the new tax system in 2007

When the militia and region commanders have been paid, then the tax gold is distributed to the troop leaders of the realm. This is done according to the points system. Points are allocated to troop leaders according to Class, Rank, office, and other criteria. Each troop leader has at least one point. The total number of points given to all the realm's troop leaders are counted, and the gold is divided up among them. This way, a troop leader with 3 points gets three times as much gold as someone with 1 point, and half as much as someone with 6.

Taxes are distributed in bonds to all eligible troop leaders.

Trading

Region gold can also be used for purchasing food from traders. Similarly, traders can buy food from a region, and the gold goes into the region's coffers along with the tax gold.

Economic Example

The realm Keplerstan has one region, Brahe. The tax rate is 12% at the beginning of the week. The commander's share is 15%. Brahe has a production of 67% this turn, and its gold is listed as 2000. Therefore, this turn, 1340 gold is actually produced in Brahe, and 12% of that (160 gold) is taxed from the people of Brahe, and placed in the coffers.

Production changes on its own every day, but let's say that it maintains an average of 70% over the course of the week. So, an average of 168 gold is placed in the coffers each day for seven days. At the end of the week, 1176 gold has accumulated in the coffers. Nobody loots, but just before tax day, an infiltrator breaks into the tax office and steals 76 gold.

The following is no longer true - having been replaced with the new tax system in 2007.

Tax day rolls around, and taxes are collected. Brahe has a few hundred militia troops, who consume 200 gold every week. This is paid out immediately, leaving 900 gold. From this, the Duke of Brahe gets 135 gold. This leaves 765 gold to be divided among the troop leaders in the realm.

On tax day, Keplerstan has 10 troop leaders, of which 3 are heroes and 1 is the Ruler (who is not a hero, but is a troop leader). Keplerstan allots 1 point per Hero and 4 points to its beloved Ruler. Since each troop leader automatically gets 1 point, this means there are 17 tax points (10*1 + 3*1 + 1*4). 765 gold broken into 17 shares results in 45 gold per point.

  • The ruler receives 225 gold (4 points for being ruler + 1 point for being a troop leader)
  • The three heroes each receive 90 gold (1 point for being a hero + 1 point for being a troop leader).
  • The six remaining troop leaders each receive 45 gold (1 point for being a troop leader).

Keep in mind that the Duke of Brahe is one of the 10 troop leaders, so he received a 45 gold share in addition to the 135 gold they got as Duke.