Taxes

Tax Calculation

Tax is a natural phenomenon: the government provides services, the people pay tax in return. How much tax the people in Emperor pay depends on a few factors. First, the better the house they live in, the more tax they pay: for this reason it is always advisable to tax your elites.. they pay literally loads of taxes. The second factor is the tax rate you set on the Government tab, the higher you set it, the more tax you get.. but.. the less people think of you: do you want to pay outrageous taxes? Third and last factor: desirability, the more desirable an area is, the more tax the people are willing to pay.

To collect taxes you need a tax office, which sends out a tax official which collects the taxes from the houses he passes. If a house isn't passed by a tax official it won't pay taxes. To build tax offices and collect taxes you need a working Administrative City. Also, you need to stock the tax office with wood or paper (depending on the time).

Enough talk: now onwards to the formula for one house:

Population in the house x tax rate multiplier x (tax rate + desirability factor) = tax per month per house

Population: every single person pays tax

Tax rate multiplier (TRM): a number that depends on housing level:

Tax rate: the tax rate you set on the Government tab:
(remember: these are percentages, so you have to divide them by 100 before putting them in the formula)

Desirability factor: a number that depends on the desirability of the northern corner of the house. This number represents the percentage of tax the residents are paying more because they live in a more desirable area.

This factor is very difficult to get.. you can look at the desirability overlay, but it won't tell you a lot about the desirability of the northern corner. Best thing to do is to guess it, or calculate back with the formula when you know the tax/month.

For every 10 desirability points it has more than the required minimum, the house will pay 0.5% more in tax. The minimum desirability value is one point above the number in the column "Desirability at which house devolves" on the Housing Models page.
(again, numbers are percentages, divide them by 100 before putting them in the formula)

How much tax do I get at least per year?

To calculate the tax per year for the whole city (not taking desirability in account):

Round the tax per month to the nearest whole number, and multiply by 12 to get the tax per year for one house. Then multiply by the amount of houses you have in the city with the same TRM. Do this for every housing level you have, and add everything up.

Example

Imagine this city:

• 20 ornate apartments
• 10 luxurious apartments
• 5 heavenly compounds
• Tax rate is set at normal

What is the minimum tax you get per year?

Calculation:

ornate apartments:

Population per house: 63
TRM = 1
Tax per house per month: 63 x 1 x 0.09 = 5.67, round up to 6
Tax per year for all ornate apartments: 6 x 12 x 20 = 1440 cash

luxurious apartments:

Population per house: 74
TRM = 2
Tax per house per month: 74 x 2 x 0.09 = 13.32, round down to 13
Tax per year for all luxurious apartments: 13 x 12 x 10 = 1560 cash

heavenly compounds:

Population per house: 25
TRM = 24
Tax per house per month: 25 x 24 x 0.09 = 54
Tax per year for all heavenly compounds: 54 x 12 x 5 = 3240 cash

Total tax per year: 1440 + 1560 + 3240 = 6240 cash

Taxes and City Sentiment

Of course, your citizens don't like to be taxed, and your popularity will suffer when you charge extremely high taxes.

Table with the effects of taxes on city sentiment: