Low Taxes, as always, I need advice :)

[Lord Ravinous]

What would be a low tax rate for citizens of a Small Town? By low I mean, to put "low" into perspective, heres a 5 teir tax tree.

High
Tolerable
Fair
>Low< - This is my target area.....
"Lemme get the piggie-bank"

So, for a small town, about how much would "low" be? Followed by "Fair". Any help here would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[jgbrowning]

For a rough estimate I'd go (lowest to highest)

10%
20%
30%
40%
50%

for 5 tiers within a small town. How's the small town governed? Who owns the land the small town sits on? Lotsa variables...

joe b.

 

[buzzard]

What era are we talking?
If medieval, maybe 10% might be OK for low. That is what the Cathlic Church used to take (tithe). Actually lower than that might be considered low. One has to remember that productivity in those days sucked, so there wasn't a whole lot of surpluss to tax. I can't imagine that a farmer without good equipment made all that much more than his family (and livestock) ate.

Say low is 5%.

buzzard

 

[Lord Ravinous]

For a rough estimate I'd go (lowest to highest)

10%
20%
30%
40%
50%

for 5 tiers within a small town. How's the small town governed? Who owns the land the small town sits on? Lotsa variables...

joe b.

I set up the tiers so that people would better understand what I ment by Low. The town is, for lack of a better term, governed by the party, it kinda "came into our possession" so to speak:
It was originally a city state, governed by a Paladin (3rd level), and (from what I understand) protected by a Wizard (atleast 5th). A creature calling itself "The Wraith King" had turned the entire surviving population into mindless undead, captured the Baroness (the paladin), and slew the Wizard. My party and I snuck into the town castle, freeing the Baroness who told us, in more detail, of what had happened. She led us into the lower levels of the castle to join us in battle aginst the Wraith King, but she fell in battle shortly before we defeated the BBEG. After the battle, we destroyed the bone archway used to transform the townsfolk, and in doing so, the entire populace collapsed into piles of bone.

So now, we have an empty town w/ a castle, sitting nestled in a naturally defended valley in the Spine of the Worlds mountains (not far from Hundlestone and Mithral Hall). So instead of leaving it sitting, I sent out messangers to 11 towns asking settlers to move into free homes. I was going to instate a "low" tax solely to fund a city guard, and fix things as they sprang up. We figured it'd be better to invite ppl to inhabit an abandoned city, than having golblins or orcs move in.

Hope that better clears things up.

 

[Tonguez]

For Fair I'd go for 1/3 based on a three field system (ie the produce of one feild goes to the 'Authority' the other 2 being retained)

So in a village of 33 families and 100 Feilds its a split of 33/100 (33%)

Low might be anything under 20% (20/100 ->80 left)
Tolerable might be 40% and high anything more than 50%
66% would be rebellion material

 

[jgbrowning]

I can't imagine that a farmer without good equipment made all that much more than his family (and livestock) ate.

buzzard

part of that is because %50 is not an unusual level of taxes upon a peasant through much of the middle ages.

joe b.

 

[poilbrun]

So now, we have an empty town w/ a castle, sitting nestled in a naturally defended valley in the Spine of the Worlds mountains (not far from Hundlestone and Mithral Hall). So instead of leaving it sitting, I sent out messangers to 11 towns asking settlers to move into free homes. I was going to instate a "low" tax solely to fund a city guard, and fix things as they sprang up. We figured it'd be better to invite ppl to inhabit an abandoned city, than having golblins or orcs move in.

The main problem will be : on what will you tax them? They're going to settle in a valley, in the middle of nowhere, in one of the coldest area of the realms. No agriculture, no trade... If I was the DM, only the desperate or the outlaws would come there or maybe you'll be able to find mines, which will be an incentive to go there

 

[Lord Ravinous]

The main problem will be : on what will you tax them? They're going to settle in a valley, in the middle of nowhere, in one of the coldest area of the realms. No agriculture, no trade... If I was the DM, only the desperate or the outlaws would come there or maybe you'll be able to find mines, which will be an incentive to go there

Mining was the main idea, and they're are a few farms, nothing major. And I don't plan to tax them as soon as they step through the city gate either, I plan to use my own money for about 6 months. I'm mainly banking on there being ore in the mountains, and people wanting free homes to move into and land to til. Cause like I said, I'd rather have Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes living there instead of Goblins, Orcs, and Marauders.

If this little venture fails, I'll just suggest to the party that we torch the town to keep the filth of the north from taking it and keep the castle for ourselves.

 

[LGodamus]

Hi, I am his DM. Just to let you know, the valley the town sits in is prime real estate for the spine of the world, it is mildly volcanic, and has hot springs throughout the valley keeping it warmer than the surrounding climate. Its not spectacularly warmer....not even enough to tell just by walking in, but it does let the area have a growing season for some of the more hardy vegatables....

 

[Hand of Evil]

Tax rates should be based on government type, now a small town would have very little up keep, you have to decide what that is, mayor, clerk, trashmen, healer (not cleric) all could be thought of as being supported by the people. I think you will find 15% or less more than fair for a 'good' town. I guess you could figure their yearly cost add 5% to that, divid by number of people in the town but that is too much like work.

Why 15%, that is what you should tip and that is what the church gets so it makes sense.