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Taxes in Sembara

The system of feudal lords in Sembara is maintained by a series of financial obligations from the general populace to the peerage, including the manorial lords as well as the nobles.

Broadly taxes in Sembara are divided into five categories:

  • Property taxes, collected on crownland only: the deca, the nonem, the hearth tax, and any manorial or city taxes on inns or taverns
  • Tolls, collected from travelers
  • Market taxes, collected from merchants selling goods at market
  • Noble taxes: the honorus
  • Informal or customary taxes: gifts at major events, host gifts, guest gifts

Yearly Taxes

There are five formal taxes that are levied regularly:

  • The deca is a tax on the produce of the land. It is collected annually at the harvest, and is fixed at 1/10th of the goods harvested. This is collected primarily on grains, and only on the product of crownhold land, and is retained by the lord of the manor for the support of the manor and the local community, primarily the temple
  • The nonem is a second tax on the produce of the land, also collected annually at harvest. It is 1/9th of the goods harvested, and is due to the crown, although it is collected by the lord of the manor as well. Like the deca, this is collected primarily on grains, and only on the produce of crownhold land.
  • The hearth tax is collected every spring, the week after ~Some Spring Holiday~, from the lord of the manor, on behalf of the crown. The hearth tax is collected at the rate of ~tbd~ in the spring. Poor homes without a hearth do not have to pay the hearth tax, and large estates, with multiple hearths, must pay for each hearth. This is also only collected on crownhold land, and in cities or towns outside a manor, the city leadership is responsible for collecting the hearth tax and remitting it to the duke or monarch, in place of a manorial lord
  • The honorus is collected in August and December, from the manors to the baron. This varies between manors, and is fixed as an agreement between the baron and the manorial lord, when the manor is created. It is often renegotiated when the manor is inherited.

Manorial Taxes

In order to remit the honorus to their barons, the lords of the manor have a wide variety of legal options for generating revenue from their manors, in addition to the profits from the demesne and any leasehold land within the manor. This include:

  • the right to tax inns and taverns, on crownland
  • the right to collect tolls from bridges, ferries, gates, and roads
  • the right to collect docking or landing fees for fish
  • the right to collect market taxes on goods brought to market
  • the right to establish local monopolies on mills, bakehouses, and breweries
  • the right to establish local market monopolies (i.e. only the lord is allowed to sell charcoal at the local market)

Royal, Baronial, Ducal, and Free Cities

Although most towns and villages are part of a manor, a number of larger cities are not. These cities will have founding charters that specify a honorus due to the baron, duke, or monarch - although in some cases, this may be small or insignificant. The leadership of the cities has the same broad rights as the lord of the manor to impose local taxes, although in some cases the founding charter may forbid certain taxes.

Market taxes are much more common in cities, and usually represent the main funding source of city government, replacing the deca. The hearth tax is due from crownland in cities the same as outside them, although the deca and nonem are not charged.

War Taxes

The monarch reserves the right to impose an occasional tax on the populace, usually collected via the barons, but in some cases potentially collected directly by agents of the crown, such as the army, to support major wars or other significant state expenses. This is a fixed tax on all movable goods (coins and jewelry), usually of around 5% of the worth, although at times it could be higher. This tax is rarely collected. Legally, the war tax is allowed to be collected from anyone residing in Sembara, but in practice it is usually not collected from the peasantry who have few coins.

Military Host Honorus

Although the honorus is usually though of as a tax paid by a manorial lord for the privilege of controlling the manor. However, in some areas where the military is extremely active, and needs support from the the local manorial lord for activities such as road building or creating defenses, the military will pay a honorus to the baron (usually) or lord of the manor.

Gifts and Inheritances

The peerage of Sembara has a few other less formal sources of additional revenue. These include:

  • inheritance taxes
  • gifts at major events
  • host and guest gifts

Although there is no formal inheritance tax, and encumbering freehold property is illegal, leasehold property, as well as manors and baronies can have fees associated with inheritance. Additionally, in many circumstances, if no suitably close heir can be found (usually the heir is expected to be either within three degrees of relationship or of longstanding friendship) the property reverts to the lord (or the manor to the baron, or the barony to the sovereign or duke).

Additionally the feudal lords, including the lords of the manor, can generally expect gifts, often considered mandatory, at significant occasions, including marriage and the birth of a child. A significant portion of these gifts, in many cases, is used to fund temple building, devotions, and celebrations. These gifts are one of the major sources of funding for the crown from the nobility, and the occasions and amounts of this type of gift is subject only to custom, not law.

Hosting a lord can also be an expensive proposition, as it is not uncommon for the guest, should they be higher ranked than the lord, to expect gifts, usually of goods such as wine, meat, furs, or beer. Similarly, when a lord visits a higher ranked noble, gifts are often expected, usually of jewels, artwork, clothes, but occasionally of gold or silver. These types of gifts are customary, not required, but it is not unheard of for a somewhat impoverished baron to go on a grand tour of their barony to replenish their funds.

Import Duties

The crown retains the right to collect import taxes at certain specific ports of entry in Sembara from foreign goods. Most import duties are collected at a handful of trading ports along the Western Gulf and the major rivers, and they are charged on a limited but somewhat changing set of goods.

Profits of Justice

The lords also receive the profits of justice. This is primarily the fines and fees that must be paid by those found guilty. The lord of the manor (or the city government) receives these profits for the judgement of commoners in the manorial court. The crown receives these profits from the judgement of the peerage in the royal court, and the barons receive the profits of judgement from the baronial courts.

See Law in Sembara for more information.

Minting of Coins

The crown also retains a royal monopoly on the minting of coins, and gains some profit from this, although dwarven coins are also in wide circulation. The profit is usually gained from a fee for minting coins, taken from the raw silver or gold provided (seigniorage). Sembara does not usually debase coins.

See Coinage of Sembara for more information.

Non-Humans and Foreigners

These laws and customs apply to all Sembaran humans, but the rules and customs with non-humans vary.

Foreigners

Generally, Sembaran law makes no distinction between a resident Sembaran and a resident foreigner, and in fact a Sembaran wouldn’t necessarily understand the distinction. There is no concept of “being a citizen” or special privileges based on national origin. Property taxes are based on land ownership, not citizenship, and tolls and market taxes are collected from anyone using the road/bridge/etc or selling in the market.

Gifts and other similar expectations are based on place of residence, and in general, being an absentee landlord, for example, brings no social obligations to the place you own land. That is, merely owning land in a manor brings no expectation of gifts to the lord. Living in a manor does.

Lizardfolk

Lizardfolk consider all lizardfolk land folkland and thus do not pay property taxes on it, although this is sometimes disputed when the provenance of the land is unclear. Lizardfolk pay tolls and market taxes as usual, although many lizardfolk would, for example, swim a river rather than pay a bridge toll. Lizardfolk do not pay market taxes in their own villages, of course, nor do they respect local monopolies within their villages, but there is no formal exception for lizardfolk outside their villages and lands.

Lizardfolk are not expected to pay gifts to local lords, and rarely do. Lizardfolk are legally exempt from war taxes.

Dwarves

Dwarves own a variety of land – both folkland and crownland – and often live in cities, where they are subject to the usual taxes. There is a formal exception to the monopoly laws, forbidding a lord from preventing a dwarf from selling any good or service to their own kind, but beyond that, dwarves are largely treated the same as humans. The main difference is that many long-established dwarven communities own folkland, rather than crownland – their land ownership being older than the duchy or realm.

Like lizardfolk, dwarves are not expected to pay gifts to local lords, but occasionally a dwarf will if they have a particular sense of obligation to the lord. Dwarves are not legally exempt from war taxes, but are allowed to pay in services, and as a community, and so it is quite common for the dwarven war taxes to be provided via weaponsmithing or similar services.

Halflings

Halflings are a somewhat chaotic race, and although they are not thieves, they have their own ideas about what the fair price of things is, and are usually unwilling to pay anything else. Stories spread of moments when halflings paid enormously more than something is worth, but of course there are also times when they refuse to pay the typical asking price. Stories also spread of the odd and lengthy halfling memories – generation on generation of halflings seem to recall things, and plenty of people have stories of a halfling trader giving them an enormous gift for something their great-grandfather did. Of course, the opposite stories spread too, of a halfling refusing to deal with them because of some misdeed of their great-grandmother.

This attitude typically means that halflings are only willing to pay taxes they see are fair, and although that means that sometimes a halfling will refuse to pay a bridge toll, wise lords usually let this slide, and hope to make it up in the future when a different halfling overpays. Usually, this ends up being the best choice.

Halflings without a fixed residence are legally exempt from the wealth tax and all market monopolies, although a halfling that establishes a home within a lords manor would usually be legally obligated to respect local monopoly – although of course a lord does not have to enforce their own law. Halfling inns are legally exempt from taxes on inns and taverns as well, although some halflings choose to offer gifts in lieu of the tax.

Halfling property owners are legally obligated to pay the hearth tax and other property taxes, but of course they do not always, and royal audits of the collected hearth taxes have significant discretion to forgive lords who did not collect hearth taxes from halflings.

Halflings pay gifts to lords at their whim.

Other Species

Of course, there is a wide variety of species on Taelgar, beyond dwarves, halflings, and lizardfolk. But they are all rare enough that there are no formal rules. Some general guidelines, though:

  • Property taxes (deca, nonem, hearth tax) generally applies to anyone occupying property, but there is legal precedent for the idea of effectively pretending like some land is folkland even when it isn’t
  • Tolls are usually expected to be paid by everyone
  • Merchant and market taxes are usually expected to be paid by everyone, although there is significant discretion for the lord to be selective about how these are applied
  • Monopolies are generally enforced only on those selling to the general public, although there is significant discretion for the lord to be selective about how these are applied.
  • War taxes are usually collected on everyone of significant wealth and statue, and most commonly by agents of the crown. There is significant precedent around allowing war taxes to be paid in kind, i.e. via services rendered, or magic provided, or other benefits to the war effort that are not funds. Outside of this, it is most common for war taxes to be collected from non-humans, although the agents usually have limited mechanisms to enforce their collections against those who of any real power who refuse. Additionally, there is limited means to collect taxes from those whose wealth is in unusual or unrecognizable forms.
  • Informal funds, such as gifts, are usually not expected to be provided, but there is significant variation from situation to situation

It is worth noting that there are of course a wide variety of sentient beings on Taelgar, not all of whom fit into the human mold. The rules above broadly apply to the mortal species - such as stoneborn, elves, and kenku - who, broadly, settle in a community alongside the more common human, halfling, and dwarf denizens. Lots of other sentient creatures exist, and they are rarely neutral. A dryad, or a tribe of a hundred centaurs, or a band of satyrs holding an endless party, or a family of giant eagles, or a coven of hags – or any similar being – these are totally different matters, for the powerful and magical to deal with, or the village to survive, or perhaps benefit from.

It would be an unusually brave and foolhardy lord who would send tax collectors to a hag’s hut to recover the hearth tax. These types of incursions - either great dangers or great boons - exist entirely outside any legal framework.