Are merchants taxed?

[Tyan Masines]

Hello staff,

I was wondering whether merchants in a town are still taxed, similar to the one's in Troll's Bane.


If not, I believe it would be more realistic for the wealth of a town if they were, as a lot of people produce goods in one town and sell them in another - normally, that would be a quite simple import/export thing, but since the merchants we have in the game are not very realistic when it comes to the general macroeconomic theory, they should get taxed by, say, 0,5%/1% of all money they make, which would add to the town's treasury.


If, for example, Person A makes armor in Galmair and sells it to Person B from Cadomyr in Cadomyr, the money goes to Galmair in the end, through taxation of the smith.

If on the other hand Person A fishes in Cadomyr and sells all the fish to a merchant in Cadomyr, the money also goes to Galmair in the end, through taxation of the fisherman, just because he is listed in Galmair, but worked all day in Cadomyr.

If out smith would now make armor and sell it not to a player, but a merchant in Cadomyr (or the other way round), tax money would be split, if merchants were taxed. The biggest part would still go to Galmair through regular taxation, but a part would also go to Cadomyr through the Queen taxing any transactions the merchants make.

If you buy wares from merchants, it would be like a tax, if you sold some to them it would be like a toll, kind of.


Question turned into a proposal kind of, forgive and enlighten me.


Regards

[Estralis Seborian]

Realism is not a development goal of Illarion but simplicity is. Also, I fail to see the overall benefit of taxing NPC sells. NPCs are item sources/sinks and money sources/sinks and also value sources/sinks. Any money you'd "add" to the treasury will only be a "transfer" of money. The direct effect I see is that the function "money sink" is hampered even more than it is now. Always keep in mind that the NPCs are the boundaries of the economy system, not really "part" of it.

So, no, NPCs are not taxed. We could put a tax on the money the NPC hands out, but I doubt this is helpful at all. Each month, you get taxed anyway and there is no need for double taxation. So, a sales tax (Mehrwertsteuer) sounds like effort without benefit. And, by the way, the teleporters are also not taxed.