Chapter 1975 - Self-Declaration

After months working together, Zeng Juan and this team leader of similar age had taken to calling each other brothers—a rarity in the Guangzhou Finance and Tax Bureau. Compared to "those people" from Lingao, this batch of newly recruited civil servants obviously conversed more easily with retained old staff. Some had even been acquainted beforehand. As for "those people"—everyone said they were arrogant, acting like superior beings just because they'd joined the dragon a few years earlier, casually throwing around terms like "hillbilly," "backward," "feudal remnant," keeping "Senate" on their lips at all times. As if they themselves hadn't been mud-legged peasants when the Senate first arrived in Lingao. But Huang Ping didn't carry these bad habits. Though this young brother had come from Fangshaodi schools and was considered a "root-red, seedling-upright" "disciple of the Son of Heaven" in the Senate's naturalized citizen cadre system, he was comfortable to deal with. He didn't have that habit of taking pride in rudeness like some uncouth naturalized citizen cadres.

Zeng Juan had heard several times that Huang Ping could even quote passages from the Four Books and Five Classics, and his brush calligraphy was quite beautiful. Obviously not from a destitute background.

Probably a fallen young master.

Lost in these thoughts, the three arrived at the Gao Residence gate. Since they'd scheduled this visit last time, as soon as the three uniformed figures appeared, one of the two doorkeepers hurried inside to report while the other ushered them in. Master Gao had instructed the gatekeepers: whether he was home or not, whenever Australian cadres arrived, welcome them first, then report—to avoid slighting the Australians.

"Senators are one thing, but the cadres beneath them are mostly from destitute backgrounds," Gao Ju had secretly instructed his stewards and advisors. "Now that they've latched onto the dragon and phoenix, they inevitably carry the airs of poor boys suddenly grown rich, harboring resentment against us. Be extraordinarily careful in your dealings. Don't slight them." The rule was set for precisely this reason.

The three didn't stand on ceremony. After displaying credentials and task orders according to protocol, they passed through the gate and turned toward the side courtyard with practiced familiarity. It wasn't Zeng Juan's first visit to the Gao Residence. He still remembered his initial entry—where had he ever seen such a genuinely wealthy household? His eyes had gone wide. He'd thought if not for this uniform, forget sitting properly and waiting for tea—this "young master" of an incense shop would probably have been beaten out the door with cudgels.

Advisor Xu was waiting at the small courtyard gate, face wreathed in smiles. After brief pleasantries, he led them to the "Reception Room." This courtyard had been specifically allocated by the Gao family for dealings with various Australian Song government offices. The main room was a genuine "Reception Room"—a square plaque with white background and black characters was mounted on the lintel of the antique chamber, reading "Reception Room" in bold Song typeface.

The interior had also been refitted in Australian style. Carved wooden screens had been removed and replaced with floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Various "Purple Light Pavilion" style tea tables and sofas furnished the space. Imitating the Australian custom of receiving guests, a large screen stood behind the host and guest-of-honor sofas. The screen's pattern had been specially commissioned—Gao Ju had engaged master craftsmen to recreate the "Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains, Sacred Ship at Sunrise" image purchased from Lingao using mother-of-pearl inlay lacquer work. Truly magnificent.

The room also featured many "green plants" in the "Australian style." Cycads—previously dismissed as coarse and ungainly—had become the Gao family's new favorites, flanking both sides of the steps beneath the main room eaves.

In Zeng Juan's assessment, this reception room surpassed even the offices and reception halls of Senator Directors. Wealthy families were indeed different. Even their sycophancy was superior to that of common citizens.

Advisor Xu apologized at the threshold, explaining that Master Gao and Steward Yan were out meeting guests and conducting business and couldn't get away. He would stand in for now. If they had any "instructions," they should simply state them.

Huang Ping patiently reiterated the Finance and Tax Bureau regulations regarding tax management home visits: except for special circumstances, financial supervisors should handle reception. Listening from the side, Zeng Juan truly felt Team Leader Huang possessed remarkable temperament. They'd visited the Gao household repeatedly. Every single time Steward Yan was absent, this Advisor Xu would deliver the same speech, wasting everyone's breath. Conversely, after hearing Team Leader Huang's explanation once, Steward Yan had never raised these matters again.

Setting that aside, this Advisor Xu was quite astute. While the rest of Guangzhou still wielded brush pens, he'd been the first advisor to learn using a dip pen for writing simplified characters and Arabic numerals. Now he walked ahead holding a Sacred Ship brand notebook with a fountain pen clipped inside. If not for the long gown and topknot, he'd be indistinguishable from cadres awaiting meetings at the Finance and Tax Bureau.

Seated with tea served, Huang Ping dispensed with excessive small talk and proceeded directly to business. Two principal items today: first, re-clarifying Advisor Xu's identity as "Financial Person-in-Charge"; second, conducting pre-training for self-declaration procedures. The so-called Financial Person-in-Charge was simply the "Tax Reporting Accountant" of the old timeline. But considering the generally poor educational quality of accountants in this era and the planned promotion of debit-credit double-entry bookkeeping in the next phase, Zhang Xiaoqi had proposed a tone that made everyone nauseous: "Leaders grasp key points, leaders emphasize execution, leaders handle matters directly."

She felt that people capable of occupying the top accounting position in these large households were exceptional in both intelligence and emotional acuity. It would be far easier to make them understand how tax was calculated and collected. After all, taxation wasn't esoteric technology. There was no unbridgeable cognitive gap. As for self-declaration—limited by the Finance and Tax Bureau's own capacity and taxpayers' capabilities—only fifteen households were selected for the first batch after comprehensive consideration. Though Zhang Xiaoqi had obtained support from Cheng Dong, Li Mei, and Si Kaide for comprehensive accounting system reform across industrial and commercial enterprises, this support remained purely theoretical. The Commerce and Finance Departments had issued several documents clarifying the "spirit," but offered no concrete implementation measures.

Zhang Xiaoqi's original plan to transfer personnel from the Fangshaodi Accounting Vocational Class to conduct several comprehensive centralized training sessions for Guangzhou taxpayer households had also been rejected by Cheng Dong as premature.

After final negotiations, the Finance and Tax Bureau determined the fundamental principle of "Grasp the large, control the medium, fix the small." They'd borrow a few accountants from Delong to conduct relevant training for large taxpayers first. Currently, the first batch of fifteen households constituted the "Large" in "Grasp the large." The baseline Zhang Xiaoqi set was establishing tax-related subject ledgers separately according to double-entry bookkeeping principles, and if feasible, attempting to promote debit-credit double-entry bookkeeping based on accrual accounting among some taxpayers with high accounting literacy.

This news of taxpayer self-declaration struck large households like a thunderbolt. In the past, even those with connections reaching the heavens or even palace connections, relying on personal relationships and rule-abiding filial piety to pay reduced taxes or none at all—ultimately, the amount to pay had been determined by the government. Now, declaring tax liability oneself? This was truly unprecedented since antiquity. As word spread, many claiming insider knowledge said this was merely "changing the soup but not the medicine"—the Great Song new court being "lenient" toward sensible large households in a different guise.

Advisor Xu wasn't such a fool. On declaration day, the woman behind the high counter with a peach-blossom face had uttered the four words "Tax According to Law" lightly. But whether he, Steward Yan, or even Master Gao understood acutely that behind the Australians' "According to Law" lay merciless killing means. The forced demolitions and excavations tearing up streets when they first entered Guangzhou, later the Witchcraft Case and the clearing of Guan Di Temple, and the legends of gentry hanged in batches like dogs in the countryside—all were "According to Law." Whoever didn't abide by their law would lose wealth at best, life at worst. This "Self" in "Self-Declaration" sounded pleasant, but it was merely a test of honesty, of whether you were of one heart with the Australians. Presently, he listened with utmost seriousness to Huang Ping's straightforward explanation, then took the account book to examine carefully.

"Comrade Huang..." Advisor Xu spoke after a prolonged silence. "And Comrade Zeng. This entry method you mentioned—I've never encountered it before. Every transaction requires two entries?"

"Yes, this is called double-entry bookkeeping." Huang Ping recalled how Zhang Xiaoqi had forced them as students to accept such a "redundant" bookkeeping method in Lingao. "Take the tax you paid several days ago. Previously, you'd take the tax receipt back, record a running account entry, then record an expenditure, and that was it. Now you must record a Debit here to clear the Tax Payable."

Huang Ping tapped the Tax Payable account in the ledger, then picked up another ledger labeled "Cash." "Record the same sum here, under Credit, deducting the tax funds from your available money. So one Debit, one Credit—Debit equals Credit..."

"Exactly! This is the Australians' Dragon Gate Ledger, isn't it?" Advisor Xu seemed to experience sudden revelation and slapped his thigh forcefully.

"Dragon Gate Ledger?" Huang Ping scratched his head. All his accounting knowledge derived from the abbreviated two-year crash course in the Finance and Tax Class. Beyond grasping simple Australian accounting, he could only comprehend that merchants currently still employed the "Four Pillars Balancing Method" from the Song Dynasty. Some merchants were worse off, using mere running accounts, and a considerable portion of merchants didn't maintain account books at all.

Zhang Xiaoqi, that half-trained expert, naturally wouldn't discuss the evolution of traditional Chinese accounting systems with them. Saying too much would require submission to the Truth Office for review. Better to directly instill the "Australian Bookkeeping Method."

"Team Leader Huang, this Dragon Gate Ledger spread from Old Xi's region," Zeng Juan chimed in. There were Shanxi people among their colleagues. For some reason, Directors Ai and Wang joked that one was a fellow villager of Old Xi. Now everyone in the Finance and Tax Bureau knew Shanxi was nicknamed "Old Xi" by Australians, just as Shanghai County was called "Magic City." Though Zeng Juan's family incense shop operated on a small scale with thin capital, this didn't prevent him from catching some "business circle" news.

Seeing someone understood, Advisor Xu became more animated, eager to display his knowledge before these Australian cadres. Truth be told, this Dragon Gate Ledger hadn't spread to Guangdong long ago, and few shops employed it, but it "indeed possessed marvelous qualities." Among those who could wield it skillfully, Advisor Xu was confident that even if not first in the city, he was certainly second.

(End of Chapter)