Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• ali jafari shahrestani ¹
• farshad momeni ²

¹ Economic Development, and Planning Economics Faculty, Allameh Tabatabai University

² Economic Development and Planning, Economics Faculty, Allameh Tabatabai University

Abstract

This study, uses a qualitative research method, i.e. narrative inquiry, to extract the principles of Kasra Anoushiravan’s tax reforms, as the earliest economic reforms in our country, from available historical resources and formulate it in a policy package. The results of our study shows that Anoushiravan took six crucial steps in renovating the tax system: 1) broadening the tax base from agricultural crops to the area under cultivation, including gardens according to their fruit trees 2) reforming the tax rates from a constant rate of one-third or one-fourth to different tax rates for different products 3) determining the frequency of tax collection to be three times a year in order to stabilize the inventories of the treasury during the year, and obliging people to pay their taxes in cash in order to reducing the transaction costs and providng a fertile ground for the development of markets 4) establishing a three part system consisting of the minister and the treasurer as the tax receivers, regional executive officers as the tax collectors, and the grand priest as the supervisor 5) exempting peasants from paying tax for damaged fields, damaged crops and self-consuming products, and allocating part of tax revenues to provide harmed or landless peasants with land, seeds, or farming tools and protecting them by repairing agricultural infrastructures including rivers and water channels 6) making the tax system much better targeted by determining the tax rate according to people’s capabilities and finally reduction of tax evasion.

Keywords

• Tax Reforms
• Agriculture
• Commodity Tax
• Per Capita Tax
• Shahnameh

Main Subjects

• Literary interdisciplinary research