#313 - Chapter 313 Are You Discriminating Against Singles?

Not a good thing?

That's not necessarily true!

Sebastian smirked, then raised a finger and gently shook it.

"A healthy tax policy is actually beneficial to Swann Alchemy."

"Why? Are you earning too many Galleons?" Amelia pouted, looking incredulous.

"Professor, you might have forgotten one thing: even without taxes, Swann Alchemy gives the Ministry of Magic a considerable amount of Galleons every year."

"So, whether there are taxes or not, it's actually the same for Swann Alchemy. Moreover, according to calculations, under a reasonable tax policy, Swann Alchemy will actually save quite a bit of Galleons."

So that's how it is.

I almost forgot that!

Amelia nodded in sudden understanding, thinking about the operating issues of the Ministry of Magic.

Since ancient times, the Ministry of Magic has had no financial or tax departments. The daily operations and employee salaries of the Ministry of Magic have always been supported by donations from the major pure-blood families.

Because of this, the Ministry of Magic is so indulgent towards the pure-blood families. As long as it's not a major crime, they can wash away their sins with donations.

After all, these pure-blood families are the Ministry of Magic's bread and butter. As long as appearances are maintained, the Ministry of Magic doesn't want to completely offend these guys.

"Sebastian," Amelia said, "Have you ever considered that, because of the donations, successive Ministers of Magic have given many preferential treatments to the pure-blood families?"

"Once it becomes taxation, these preferential treatments will be greatly reduced."

"On a larger scale, you can now even use the reason of no longer donating to threaten the Ministry of Magic. In that case, as long as your demands aren't too excessive, the Ministry of Magic will always agree to your requests."

That's the logic!

Even if multiple pure-blood families threaten together, replacing the Minister of Magic wouldn't be impossible.

However, the theory only remains on paper; actual implementation isn't that simple.

Sebastian smiled and shook his head.

Threats can never be brought to the table, and can only be used as a tacit means.

It's like nuclear weapons among Muggles; everyone actually has means of mutual restraint.

In the end, the Ministry of Magic is the largest violent institution in the British wizarding world. Finding a reason to manipulate these pure-blood families wouldn't be too difficult.

After all, as long as a pure-blood family is still doing business, no one can guarantee that everything under their control is completely clean.

Smuggling things like potions and alchemical materials is something everyone is involved in to some extent.

The Ministry of Magic usually just turns a blind eye, and only targets individual freelancers when cracking down on smuggling.

The price is that as long as they are not completely declining pure-blood families who only live off their ancestral inheritance, they must honestly donate to the Ministry of Magic.

Otherwise, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't mind settling accounts after the harvest and doing things that kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Swann Alchemy belongs to the technical processing industry, and all profits come from selling finished products.

It doesn't involve the field of raw material smuggling, but rather distributes this part of the profit directly to other cooperating families, based on the principle of everyone making money together.

So, for a clean enterprise like Swann Alchemy, this annual donation to the Ministry of Magic is purely a waste of money. Not only are the benefits too small, but it's also easy to incur resentment.

Once they refuse to donate and the employees of the Ministry of Magic don't get their salaries, they won't care who is right or wrong between Swann Alchemy and the Ministry of Magic, and will only vent their anger on Swann Alchemy.

At that time, as long as the media adds a little fuel to the fire, saying that Swann Alchemy intends to control the Ministry of Magic through economic means, Swann Alchemy's reputation will easily be ruined.

There are too many reasons for this, and Sebastian couldn't explain them all at once, so he could only smile at Amelia and say.

"I prefer Swann Alchemy to be an excellent tax-paying enterprise, rather than donating with its head down every day."

"After becoming an excellent tax-paying enterprise, I can also make a big deal out of this, letting the wizarding world know about the contributions made by Swann Alchemy. After all, for an enterprise, fame and fortune are equally important."

"As for various hidden benefits, as long as I have enough friends in the Ministry of Magic, I won't be shortchanged."

"Okay!" Amelia nodded thoughtfully, "As long as you've thought it through."

She didn't say anything more, but carefully read through the various tax items.

She found that although Percy was young, the various tax items were set extremely reasonably.

For example, corporate income tax, individual business income tax, and personal income tax, etc. In short, the plan is to implement universal taxation.

Considering some low-income people, Percy also thoughtfully introduced a tiered tax system.

That is to say, as long as the income does not reach a certain standard, there is no need to pay any fees. And the higher a person's income, the higher the taxes paid.

In terms of personal income tax, Percy also specially divided different tax levels such as A, B, and C for different groups of people.

For example, wizarding families who are married and have children pay the lowest tax rate.

Wizarding families without children pay the next lowest tax rate.

As for single wizards, they are at the bottom of the food chain and pay the highest tax rate.

After seeing this, Amelia's face darkened.

There was no way around it; she belonged to the last category of single wizards, and she had no plans to marry in this lifetime.

"Percy," Amelia asked in a deep voice, "Why make single wizards pay such high taxes?"

"Is this discriminating against single people?"

"As far as I know, there are quite a few single professors at Hogwarts. Do you want those professors to give you trouble?"

"This..." Percy's smile froze on his face.

When he wrote this clause, he thought that he would be hated by many people, but for the sake of the wizarding world, he didn't care at all.

After all, his strength was not bad, and ordinary wizards could not bring any threat.

But he completely forgot that almost all of Hogwarts' old professors were single.

Thinking of Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and Professor Snape chasing him with dark faces because their income had decreased, Percy's heart twitched a little.

Before Percy could speak, Sebastian took the initiative to speak and took on the responsibility of explaining.

After all, this hat was too big, and Percy might not be able to bear it.

"Amelia, don't worry. This method is actually learned from the Muggles next door in Germany."

"The number of wizards is too small. The main purpose of this is to promote the population growth of wizards."

There was no way around it; wizards' desire to have children was really not very high. Looking around the wizarding world, there were free and easy single aristocrats everywhere.

This led to the number of wizards not increasing.

However, for a race, the number of people is a prerequisite for development.

The butt decides the head. If Sebastian was just an ordinary single wizard, he would definitely strongly oppose this tax level system.

However, when he stood at a certain height and began to look at the entire wizarding world, he naturally had to resolutely promote this system.

At the very least, for the sake of their own wallets, there would always be a group of single wizards willing to start families.

Sebastian patiently explained the pros and cons to Amelia, and even directly used the German Muggle world as an example. It took a lot of effort to make Amelia understand the tricks.

Considering the future of the wizarding world, Amelia quickly accepted this statement.

"For the wizarding world, universal taxation is indeed a very good policy," Amelia said after thinking for a while.

"However, the benefits of this are extremely huge. What aspects will these collected taxes be used for?"

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