Senatus consultum on the process for setting the Nova Roman annual tax rate
SENATUS CONSULTUM ON THE PROCESS FOR SETTING THE NOVA ROMAN ANNUAL TAX RATE
I. The Senate establishes the following process for determining the annual tax and this process shall be the only method used for that purpose.
II. The Senate Finance Committee (SFC) must annually between July 15th and July 31st obtain from the Senate Policy Committee (SPC) details of any policies (actual or proposed) that have a known, or estimated financial, cost.
III. The SFC shall debate and vote upon such policies at II for the purpose of determining the content of the draft budget for the following year. In the event that one or more of the policies at II cannot be supported financially, the SFC shall inform the SPC of this fact no later than August 15th of each year, in order to allow time for the SPC to modify such policies and resubmit them to the SFC.
IV. Between August 15th and August 31st the SFC must set the annual tax rate, which must be in USD dollars.
V. The annual tax shall consist of five separate rates, one for each of the five classes of the Comitia Centuriata.
VI. Using the most recent data available from the censors the SFC shall determine which centuries fall into which of the five Comitia Centuriata classes, by using the percentages specified at section III of the Lex Octavia altera de comitiis centuriatis.
VII. The SFC shall, using the known and estimated expenses, as determined at III and from data supplied by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nova Roma Inc. determine what rates of tax in each of the five classes are necessary in order to generate a revenue amount at least, or greater than, the known and estimated expenses. The SFC shall then debate and vote upon the tax rate to apply to each of the five Comitia Centuriata classes.
VIII. The SFC shall conclude the debates and votes on the draft annual tax and the draft budget before September 1st annually. The tax period, to which the annual tax shall apply, shall start on January 1st and end on December 31st of each year.
IX. The SFC shall present the draft annual tax and draft budget to the CFO. The CFO must approve or reject the draft annual tax and draft annual budget. If he/she rejects either or both, then he/she must supply a reason to the SFC, which may resubmit to the CFO an amended version of the rejected item(s).
X. Once the CFO has approved both the draft annual tax and draft budget, then the SFC shall prepare:
A. A draft Senatus consultum titled “SENATUS CONSULTUM ON THE ANNUAL TAX RATES FOR XXXX A.U.C.” XXXX” shall be replaced with the following year in A.U.C. format. This shall have in its text the draft annual tax.
B. A draft Senatus consultum titled “SENATUS CONSULTUM ON THE BUDGET FOR XXXX A.U.C.”. “XXXX” shall be replaced with the following year in A.U.C. format. This shall have in its text the draft budget details.
XI. The process for the Senate voting upon the draft Senatus consulta at X.A and X.B shall be:
A. The chairperson of the SFC shall post the draft consulta at X.A and X.B to the Senate list between September 1st and October 1st inclusive.
B. The consul holding the rods for the month in which they are posted must within 5 days of their posting obtain the auspices for a formal meeting of the Senate in session within the month in which they are posted, the debate period of which must be no less than 168 hours in length.
C. If the auspices are favorable the consul at XI.B must issue the call to convene for the proposed session for which the auspices were sought, and include the draft Senatus consulta at X.A and X.B as agenda items in that call to convene.
D. The consul at XI.B must put the draft consulta at X.A and X.B, unaltered in any way, to the vote, which shall be by way of simple majority.
XII. If the draft Senatus at X.A succeeds and is passed, then the CFO shall post to the Forum list (aka Main List), the Nova Roma announce list, and the website/wiki details of the annual tax rates for the next year.
XIII. All taxes must be remitted by the means specified annually by the Chief Financial Officer of Nova Roma prior to the commencement of a new tax period, such means being one or more of the following payment options:
A. PayPal
1. In respect of IX.A all transaction fees charged by PayPal must be calculated into the payment sent to Nova Roma, so for example if the tax a citizen has to pay is $10.00 USD and the PayPal transaction fee is 50 cents, then the citizen must remit $10.50 USD.
2. If an amount of money less than the exact amount of tax due is deposited in the Nova Roman PayPal account, then the citizen who remitted it, or the citizen on whose behalf it was remitted, shall not have paid the full amount of tax due and shall not be classified as one of the assidui until the full amount due is remitted and received in the Nova Roman PayPal account.
3. The PayPal account which the annual tax must be remitted to will be specified annually by the CFO.
4. The other details required on the PayPal transaction will be specified annually by the CFO.
B. Personal check / bank draft / bank money order
1. This must have an encoded sequence of banking numbers on it, to prevent it having to be sent on collection by Nova Roma’s bank.
2. The details of what style of name of Nova Roma checks should be made payable to will be specified annually by the CFO,
3. The address which checks must be sent to will be specified annually by the CFO.
4. The other details required on checks will be specified annually by the CFO.
5. Any citizen whose check, or bank draft or bank money order was rejected for payment by his/her financial institution, for insufficient funds or other reasons, shall have the amount of any fees that are charged to Nova Roma Inc. as a result of the return added to the amount due and payable by him/her in respect of the annual tax due and payable. Should that citizen have been classified as assidui the CFO will re-classify him/her as capite censi. Payment of the amount of such fees owning shall be required in full before that citizen can be again classified as assidui. Such fees owed shall be treated for the purpose of this Senatus consultum as arrears owed on the annual tax.
XIV. The annual tax for a particular year is due and payable in full by March 31st of that particular year. The amount a citizen has to pay is equal to the amount specified at section X.A of this Senatus consultum for the class he/she is in, which in turn is determined by the century he/she is in, as at section VI of this Senatus consultum. For example if a citizen is in century 22, and century 22 is specified as in class 2 then the tax due and payable by the citizen is equal to that for class 2. The annual tax due and payable each tax period by a citizen is based on the class and century a citizen is in at a time:
A. After the enactment of the draft Senatus consultum at X.A
B. Between the commencement and end of that tax period
C. Of the actual payment of the annual tax due and payable by that citizen. Should the full amount of tax due not be paid before any recalculation of the century a citizen is in, the final amount of annual tax due and payable by that citizen shall always be the rate for the highest class and century a citizen was in during any tax period. Any payments made by a citizen before XIV.A and XIV.B shall not be considered payment of the annual tax and shall be treated as a donation to the general revenue of Nova Roma. For a payment of the annual tax, whether partial or full, that complies with XIV.A and XIV.B to be recorded as such a payment of the annual tax, then the transaction method must include clear notation that it is paid towards the annual tax due and payable by the citizen concerned.
XV. If a citizen fails to pay in full the annual tax due and payable for a particular year by March 31st of that particular year then between April 1st and September 30th of that particular year he/she shall pay the amount due and payable as at XIV, less any partial payments already made, plus the amount specified at section X.A of this Senatus consultum for class 1.
XVI. If a citizen fails to pay in full the annual tax due and payable for a particular year by September 30th of that particular year then between October 1st and October 31st of that particular year he/she shall pay the amount due and payable as at XIV, less any partial payments already made, plus double the amount specified at section X.A of this Senatus consultum for class 1.
XVII. No payments of the annual tax will be accepted from November 1st to December 31st. All arrears of the annual tax due and payable for a particular year, plus any arrears on previous tax periods, will carry over into the following tax period and remain due and payable, in addition to the annual tax due for that following year.
XVIII. Payment arrangements of the annual tax due and payable for a particular year and/or arrears owing from previous tax periods are at the discretion of the CFO and must be negotiated on an individual case-bycase basis.
XIX. Upon enactment of this Senatus consultum its provisions will take effect for the planning and setting of the annual for the year 2766 A.U.C. The tax period the tax period for the year 2765 A.U.C. shall run from March 1st to December 31st. Subsequent years will be as per VIII and shall start on January 1st and end on December 31st of each year. For 2765 A.U.C. only the following sections will be modified as follows:
A. XIV will be modified to read “May 31st” instead of “March 31st”.
B. XV will be modified to read “May 31st” instead of “March 31st” and “June 1st” instead of “April 1st”
XX. In the event of a failure of the consuls to execute the requirements placed on them by this Senatus consultum, then that failure shall be deemed to be contempt of the Senate and shall be dealt with according to the process at section IX of the SENATUS CONSULTUM DE RATIONE SENATUS MMDCCLXV.
XXI. The definitions provided at section I DEFINITIONS of the Senatus consultum de ratione senatus MMDCCLXV shall be applicable to deriving meaning of a word or phrase included in this Senatus consultum that also appears in that list of definitions.
XXII. The princeps senatus shall be the final authority on determining the meaning of any part of this Senatus consultum where such meaning is unclear to any member of the Senate, and/or to arbitrate in any dispute between members of the Senate over such meaning.
XXIII. The following Senatus consulta are repealed:
A. Senatvs Consvlta Q. Fabius' Tax proposal for the citizens of Nova Roma. http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2000-11-09-vii.html
B. Senatvs Consvlta Taxation http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2001-07-18-viii.html
C. Senatvs Consvltvm - Modification to Senatus Consultum on Taxation http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2002-01-05-v.html
D. ITEM IV. Annual Membership Fee Rate Adjustment http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2002-11-09-results.html
E. ITEM IV: Enact a policy enabling late payment of taxes http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2002-06-01-results.html
XXIV. Upon enactment of this Senatus consultum:
A. The only lawful method of subsequently superseding, amending or repealing this Senatus consultum must be by way of a Senatus consultum that must achieve an extraordinary majority before it can be enacted. Any other method or attempt shall be illegal and forbidden.
B. No other Senatus consultum shall be enacted where the proposed content of which conflicts, negates, overrides, limits or otherwise affects in a negative manner the contents and/or purposes of all or any part of this Senatus consultum, whether directly or indirectly other than by the method at specified at XXIV.A of this Senatus consultum.
