Mechanism of State Direct Salary per Capita Taxation in the Belarusian Provinces of the Russian Empire in the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article discusses the legal mechanism of state direct salary per capita taxation in the Belarusian provinces of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The place and role of Belarusian lands in the per capita taxation system of the Russian Empire is determined. It has been established that, in general, the legal mechanism of per capita taxation on Belarusian lands in the first half of the 19th century for peasants and townspeople was identical to the taxation process in the European part of Imperial Russia. The regional specificity of the per capita taxation system in the Belarusian provinces of the Russian Empire boiled down to the presence of a number of categories of the population that were exempt from paying the per capita tax or had temporary tax breaks, and was characterized by a significant proportion of Jewish townspeople among the per capita tax payers. At certain periods of time, certain social and ethno-confessional (Jews) groups of the tax-paying population had special per capita salaries. In certain periods of time, certain social and ethno-confessional (Jews) groups of the tax-paying population had special per capita salaries. In addition, until 1851, the per capita tax of the rural population included a duty for the right to freely distill and sell wine. Differences are noted in the principles of allocation of per capita salaries in individual Belarusian provinces. The share of Belarusian provinces in the accrued per capita taxes of Imperial Russia has been revealed. t is concluded that on the eve of large-scale reforms in the 1860s. The Belarusian region had a low degree of burden with direct poll taxes within the vast Russian state. Attention is drawn to the fact that the state capitation taxation system gave rise to fiscal-serfdom oppression.