Reading the UC I see Taxes are levied against each PC equal to one encounters Total Treasure Value(of the current level).
Now part of me really likes this rule/guideline.Back in AD&D I paid taxes all over the place and although it was a pain in my arse it also grounded me a little more in the Fantasy World. I remember the songs and dances I would give that FANTASTICALLY knowledgeable Taxman! Back in the day the government of Greyhawk got Clerics to friggin collect the taxes. Hard to get a attitude with the guys who heal you I guess. Also they could detect lies!
Anyway,that Tax total seems a little high for me. Especially considering you pay EVERY LEVEL! Good Lord I hope no one has a long game weekend and makes two levels because they will really be paying out a hurt then!
Do you guys use Taxes at all? If so how?Why?
Do you think it adds tot he game?
IF you feel that you need to bring it into the game and IF you don't want it to lead to a armed conflict sooner or later I am really thinking a strait Tax on goods would be in order.
Different cities,Kingdoms ect could have different rates. One where massive rebuilding might be underway perhaps a flat 20% tax on all goods.
That magic sword just got more expensive to buy or make.
Now that still leaves....why to bring Taxes into the picture at all.
What do the pc's actually get for those Taxes?
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Only as a plot device.
You all come out of the dungeon, wounded and depleted of resources, only to find the Royal Tax Collector and 20 men with loaded crossbows waiting you. "We'll be taking that treasure now, in the name of the king of course!"
And now the PCs are interested in that revolution storyline you can't get them invested in.
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Taxation historically has been minimum effort. You tax landowners, because they can't go anywhere. You tax merchants, because they're moving merchandise it's easy to assess (at ports or gates). You tax travel, because you have a tollbooth and some guards.
Taxing adventurers? Much more difficult. They don't have an easily assessed income, and taxing someone's net wealth of portable property is hard without extremely invasive methods.
In general, taxation in games should fall into the adventurer's monthly upkeep. It's just part of living a lifestyle. If and when the adventurers acquire land or get engaged in 'normal' business, that's when the taxation should happen (though to be fair, a lot of taxes can be handwaved as part of a character's weekly profession checks; the result is after tax money).
Also note: The concept of ability to pay is a very modern notion. Taxation was seldom on a sliding scale, but assessed on either a more tangible basis (you have 8 cows,30 pigs and 200 acres of land) or a per diem basis (2 copper per leg to cross the bridge). Income tax in North America at least was a 20th century invention.
If the PCs are not Hobo Murderers and have an actual home, they might be taxed there. But in general, other than tolls/entry taxes (which are trivial after adventure #1) I wouldn't worry about taxing adventurers. Having them spend their loot in your town, means that you get to tax the places where they spend it and otherwise improves their economy.
Instead of taxing adventures, a country could require them to have a charter and pay an annual fee. The relative cost and difficulty of obtaining the charter can help contrast different places feelings about adventures. One place might require you to belong to a state run "guild" and submit to magical tracking and a magical interrogation. Another might require every member to register with a magistrate, another has a fee, but rarely checks if you renewed.
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It makes sense in the context of Ultimate Campaign. Want to have a prosperous city? Taxes are required. Unless the party funds the city with dragon's hoards.
Its important to the player characters to know they aren't the only ones being taxed. If they are running a city such as in Kingmaker or created via Ultimate Campaign and refuse to pay taxes, it'd probably hurt the morale of the city if the citizens found out they had to pay taxes but not the great and supposedly honorable heroes.
It is also interesting to note that they could potentially be in the position of creating taxes but still they should know that even though they are the creator they still must pay them as well.
My players are good chaps who donate the lesser magic, masterwork stuff, and lots of the lesser valued loot to their home town government/churches/charities...I kinda use that as their taxes.
It works for us...and we have fun.
In our games we use the COST OF LIVING rules to cover taxes and other miscellany. It's much more simple than that found in Ultimate Campaign.
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.
Up to and including robbery, murder, desecration of holy sites, impersonation of an official, breaking and entering, fraud, slander, libel, grand larceny, destruction of property, child endangerment, conspiracy, treason, smuggling, slavery, illegal spell use, contraband, assault, aggravated assault, manslaughter.
Well you get the picture.
Calling them "adventurers" is the nice way of calling them bandits, thieves and thugs.
It's funny and ironic that my paladin from the RotRL game I play considers himself an officer of the law and a crusader. He's mostly spent his time doing adventurer things because his bosses told him to do it. The most "Adventurer" thing he had to do was an impromptu execution of a traitor in the middle of the wilderness.
As for taxation? Taxing adventurers is impossible.
Taxing the things they need? Much easier.
For example a town could levy a sales tax on non-residents for the purchase of weapons and magic items. In this way adventurers have to contribute to the town if they want their swords since the merchant has to charge the tax for the item.
In terms of "treasure tax" there's no practical way to collect it.
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I have only been taxed in 3.5 and it did not end well for the collecter or the nation that tried. No one messes with a True Necromancer Wizard with the Necrotic Cyst spells and the ability to create hordes of Undead. I paid my tax and scryed it. Then proceeded to raze every town that the tax guy went through and made every one of them villagers uncontrolled 2hd undead that blow up in d6 negative energy when killed. The DM and no DM after that ever taxed any of my characters after that. Best part is that when i made my paladin in the same game world i hunted down my own necromancer since it became the new BBEG of the game.
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If you were LV 7, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable Andoran system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a dragon horde—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.
You could always unleash Something Positive's Infernal Tax Collector on your players. Because you're mean.
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.Up to and including robbery, murder, desecration of holy sites, impersonation of an official, breaking and entering, fraud, slander, libel, grand larceny, destruction of property, child endangerment, conspiracy, treason, smuggling, slavery, illegal spell use, contraband, assault, aggravated assault, manslaughter.
Well you get the picture.
Calling them "adventurers" is the nice way of calling them bandits, thieves and thugs.
It's funny and ironic that my paladin from the RotRL game I play considers himself an officer of the law and a crusader. He's mostly spent his time doing adventurer things because his bosses told him to do it. The most "Adventurer" thing he had to do was an impromptu execution of a traitor in the middle of the wilderness.
As for taxation? Taxing adventurers is impossible.
Taxing the things they need? Much easier.
For example a town could levy a sales tax on non-residents for the purchase of weapons and magic items. In this way adventurers have to contribute to the town if they want their swords since the merchant has to charge the tax for the item.
In terms of "treasure tax" there's no practical way to collect it.
A very negative, bureaucratic view point. The other side of the coin is that the adventurers are doing what inept guards and lazy soldiers *should* be doing, but aren't. Ridding the countryside of highwaymen and monsters.
For what reason should these heroes have to fork over their hard-earned gold? The money used to pay the police force clearly isn't working, since the adventurers are doing all the dirty work anyway. Road taxes? Hell, most of the time, the group of adventurers are off in the wilderness, beyond the purview of established roads. Land taxes? Most adventurers are wayfarers and drifters.
The only thing I can see them getting taxed over is sales tax, and even then, I wouldn't charge some ridiculous for non-residents, especially since these very non-residents are inflating the towns coffers anyhow.
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It all depends on what kind of a campaign the characters like. Some groups like gritty, realistic worlds where there are taxes, social injustices, and many shades of "gray" morality. Yes, the Count taxes his peasants cruelly to maintain an army. But if he doesn't do it, his neighbor will invade and conquer the County. Since medieval armies "forage" that means the peasants will be stripped bare, and remember that looting is a standard soldier occupation into the 20th century. Then, the starved, looted peasants will still be taxed just as cruelly by their new "Lord".
These kinds of worlds rarely lend themselves to simple or quick fixes. You try to make things better where you can. And finding a lord worth serving is a boon beyond price.
Other groups want the "social studies crap" simplified or taken out entirely. Dragon loot just makes things better. Forget that the supply of everything hasn't increased. More gold just means the peasants magically grow more grain and everybody is happy. That's heroic fantasy.
If your group is the first sort, feel free to heap taxes on them. Maybe they can't sell their loot without a tax stamp. The merchants won't buy it because they would lose their business when they try to resell it. Maybe Grave robbing is considered a crime just like it is in every real world country since the beginning of time, and they have to bribe a greedy noble to reclassify their loot as "salvage". Considering that the alternative is a headsman's block; 50% is an exceedingly generous offer on his part. Honestly, go to a county zoning commission meeting in your local county if you don't think this kind of greed and corruption are commonplace. You won't bother because you don't care. No one really does. Even the guy who gets shaken down only cares until he gets his variance; then he wants the next guy to have to pay even more. Don't tell me I can't tax adventurers; I can tax you in ways you can't even imagine. I'll tax your food. I'll tax your bed. I'll tax the leaves you wipe your arse with and the spade you cover your doo with. You are the perfect target to tax; transients with no connections, no political pull, no desire to stick around and get involved in politics...and you're rich. You are an American in Canada. Good luck getting out with your clothes.
If your group is the second type, forget taxes. We play games to not have to deal with real-world crap. Let them get rich without causing inflation or making the established power structure jealous. Let them buy a castle without bothering with why it's for sale or what the previous owner is gonna do with the money. They are bloody heroes, mate! Let them live larger than life.
My advice: Choose the second option. This is Pathfinder, not a course on political corruption and greed past and present.
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.Up to and including robbery, murder, desecration of holy sites, impersonation of an official, breaking and entering, fraud, slander, libel, grand larceny, destruction of property, child endangerment, conspiracy, treason, smuggling, slavery, illegal spell use, contraband, assault, aggravated assault, manslaughter.
Well you get the picture.
Calling them "adventurers" is the nice way of calling them bandits, thieves and thugs.
It's funny and ironic that my paladin from the RotRL game I play considers himself an officer of the law and a crusader. He's mostly spent his time doing adventurer things because his bosses told him to do it. The most "Adventurer" thing he had to do was an impromptu execution of a traitor in the middle of the wilderness.
As for taxation? Taxing adventurers is impossible.
Taxing the things they need? Much easier.
For example a town could levy a sales tax on non-residents for the purchase of weapons and magic items. In this way adventurers have to contribute to the town if they want their swords since the merchant has to charge the tax for the item.
In terms of "treasure tax" there's no practical way to collect it.
A very negative, bureaucratic view point. The other side of the coin is that the adventurers are doing what inept guards and lazy soldiers *should* be doing, but aren't. Ridding the countryside of highwaymen and monsters.
For what reason should these heroes have to fork over their hard-earned gold? The money used to pay the police force clearly isn't working, since the adventurers are doing all the dirty work anyway. Road taxes? Hell, most of the time, the group of adventurers are off in the wilderness, beyond the purview of established roads. Land taxes? Most adventurers are wayfarers and drifters.
The only thing I can see them getting taxed over is sales tax, and even then, I wouldn't charge some ridiculous for...
Yes they certainly do what the "lazy" soldiers do. Through vigilantism and mercenary activities.
They can shatter economies all by themselves, wield destructive power rivaling if not exceeding the local military, and more often than not recognize no rule of law but there own.
Tell me as an orderly society would this be accepted?
I think that's why AP's go out of there way to establish some form of legitimacy for you in the first book. RoTRL basically made you town guards (Which made being a paladin that much easier, hello legitimate reason to check your factory for corpses). CoT made you part of a resistance group and therefore inclined to break the law anyway. Skull and Shackles made you pirates, Kingmaker basically handed you legitimate authority on a silver platter.
BAsically the point i'm making here is that calling yourself an "adventurer" is like calling yourself a guy who wanders around with a sword who could give a crap about your laws, your property, and sense of peace. We'll rob your tombs, break into your houses, and slaughter your peaceful neighborly kobold tribe without a second thought.
Heroes? The average guy would ask why the hero didn't join the guard, and then straighten it up if he thought thigns were so bad around here. Instead he came in, took all the money he found from the haunted house down the street (which didn't belong to them) demanded money for the privilege and spent maybe 1/20th of it in the local bar.
...
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.Up to and including robbery, murder, desecration of holy sites, impersonation of an official, breaking and entering, fraud, slander, libel, grand larceny, destruction of property, child endangerment, conspiracy, treason, smuggling, slavery, illegal spell use, contraband, assault, aggravated assault, manslaughter.
Well you get the picture.
Calling them "adventurers" is the nice way of calling them bandits, thieves and thugs.
It's funny and ironic that my paladin from the RotRL game I play considers himself an officer of the law and a crusader. He's mostly spent his time doing adventurer things because his bosses told him to do it. The most "Adventurer" thing he had to do was an impromptu execution of a traitor in the middle of the wilderness.
As for taxation? Taxing adventurers is impossible.
Taxing the things they need? Much easier.
For example a town could levy a sales tax on non-residents for the purchase of weapons and magic items. In this way adventurers have to contribute to the town if they want their swords since the merchant has to charge the tax for the item.
In terms of "treasure tax" there's no practical way to collect it.
A very negative, bureaucratic view point. The other side of the coin is that the adventurers are doing what inept guards and lazy soldiers *should* be doing, but aren't. Ridding the countryside of highwaymen and monsters.
For what reason should these heroes have to fork over their hard-earned gold? The money used to pay the police force clearly isn't working, since the adventurers are doing all the dirty work anyway. Road taxes? Hell, most of the time, the group of adventurers are off in the wilderness, beyond the purview of established roads. Land taxes? Most adventurers are wayfarers and drifters.
The only thing I can see them getting taxed over is sales tax, and even then, I
Lol, okay. You clearly run/play in different games then I do.
I haven't played a roaming thug out for nothing more than gold and glory since I was 12.
But meh. Whatever floats your boat. :)
Lol, okay. You clearly run/play in different games then I do.
I haven't played a roaming thug out for nothing more than gold and glory since I was 12.
But meh. Whatever floats your boat. :)
Keep in mind intent has nothing to do with it. It's a question of authority, the capability to enact it, and ignoring the legitimate authority in place. Governments tend to frown upon foreign powers coming in and thrashing their expensive violent toys around no matter their intent (see recent controversy about drone strikes).
In my mind it's just honest and somewhat more realistic thought towards the concept of "adventuring". It's also worth talking about settings wher ethe word "adventurer" doesn't exist at all. In those cases the character's may face even more dire circumstances tahn mere bureaucratic accounting. THe king may take great offense that you rushed in and took the loot from the forgotten tomb on his lands before his own troops could muster the time and manpower away from defending the damn kingdom from highwaymen and monsters. :)
Heck he might have even been planning to hire and pay off those highwaymen you just completely killed.
If you need a solid fantasy reference you can look towards discworld for a good solid reference on a certain amount of distaste for the classic adventuring hero as made famous by Conan.
It all depends on what kind of a campaign the characters like. Some groups like gritty, realistic worlds where there are taxes, social injustices, and many shades of "gray" morality. Yes, the Count taxes his peasants cruelly to maintain an army. But if he doesn't do it, his neighbor will invade and conquer the County. Since medieval armies "forage" that means the peasants will be stripped bare, and remember that looting is a standard soldier occupation into the 20th century. Then, the starved, looted peasants will still be taxed just as cruelly by their new "Lord".
These kinds of worlds rarely lend themselves to simple or quick fixes. You try to make things better where you can. And finding a lord worth serving is a boon beyond price.Other groups want the "social studies crap" simplified or taken out entirely. Dragon loot just makes things better. Forget that the supply of everything hasn't increased. More gold just means the peasants magically grow more grain and everybody is happy. That's heroic fantasy.
If your group is the first sort, feel free to heap taxes on them. Maybe they can't sell their loot without a tax stamp. The merchants won't buy it because they would lose their business when they try to resell it. Maybe Grave robbing is considered a crime just like it is in every real world country since the beginning of time, and they have to bribe a greedy noble to reclassify their loot as "salvage". Considering that the alternative is a headsman's block; 50% is an exceedingly generous offer on his part. Honestly, go to a county zoning commission meeting in your local county if you don't think this kind of greed and corruption are commonplace. You won't bother because you don't care. No one really does. Even the guy who gets shaken down only cares until he gets his variance; then he wants the next guy to have to pay even more. Don't tell me I can't tax adventurers; I can tax you in ways you can't even imagine. I'll tax your food. I'll tax your bed. I'll tax the leaves you wipe your arse with and...
Graverobbing as a crime has only been a crime in recent times, and generally only refers to the taking of bodies or possessions of recently interred. Graves are looted worldwide on a daily basis, by people we call "archeologists." For some reason when you give someone a degree, he can now rob graves.
Graverobbing as a crime has only been a crime in recent times, and generally only refers to the taking of bodies or possessions of recently interred. Graves are looted worldwide on a daily basis, by people we call "archeologists." For some reason when you give someone a degree, he can now rob graves.Yeah, and they let some other people with degrees use a knife to cut people open. Madness!
Also, the ancient egyptions frowned on grave robbing pretty fierce. Actually, any culture that valued the bodies of the dead had punishments for grave robbing. It's hardly recent.
Yes, I'd hardly call it recent.
And keep in mind that most of the time unless said archaeologist is a bastard he still gets permission from the local government usually with huge oversight.
In fact to take this further most of the graverobbing performed by rich english jerks in Egypt weren't archaeologists in it for the science but rich english jerks in it for the money and glory. Sound familiar?
I find it interesting that historically mercenaries adn soldiers of fortune were what we might consider adventurers today. As that's how I described the origin of the profession in a work for Neoexodus.
What ultiamtely turned it from a large group of extortionists and mercenaries taking advantage of those who could not fend for themselves was the altruistic actions of a man and his friends going forth to do away with said scoundrels while taking over there job. Thus the respectable profession of adventuring was born.
[QUOTE"]
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.
Up to and including robbery, murder, desecration of holy sites, impersonation of an official, breaking and entering, fraud, slander, libel, grand larceny, destruction of property, child endangerment, conspiracy, treason, smuggling, slavery, illegal spell use, contraband, assault, aggravated assault, manslaughter.
Well you get the picture.
Calling them "adventurers" is the nice way of calling them bandits, thieves and thugs.
Maybe adventurer guilds and charters are similar to the real world Letters of Marque. They didn't change the fact you were still a pirate, you were just a legal pirate in one country. So they may be bandits, thieves, and thugs everywhere else, but they are adventurers to the country where they are registered.
Joining a guild and registering could give benefits - more relaxed policy on wielding weapons, less severe punishment for non-major crimes committed, free room and board if your guild has a guildhall in the area, etc. Adventurers from more renowned guilds could be in higher demand, and could demand higher pay from any job(quest). Registering and maintaining your membership requires a yearly/monthly fee of course, and you could be subject to being called up to serve your country in a time of war.
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Instead of taxing adventures, a country could require them to have a charter and pay an annual fee. The relative cost and difficulty of obtaining the charter can help contrast different places feelings about adventures. One place might require you to belong to a state run "guild" and submit to magical tracking and a magical interrogation. Another might require every member to register with a magistrate, another has a fee, but rarely checks if you renewed.Personally I have always found this idea kind of silly. It implies that "adventuring" is a profession and that its so common that each country has developed an entire branch of government around them.
Adventurer is a very vague title which includes a lot of things.
You call it a "mercenary company charter". It encompass the work of armed caravan guards, working as a military company, big pest extermination (a.k.a. monster hunting), heavily armed repo men and so on. That will include almost all legal and semi legal work an adventurer will do and include enough common activities that a government will try to regulate them.
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I have only been taxed in 3.5 and it did not end well for the collecter or the nation that tried. No one messes with a True Necromancer Wizard with the Necrotic Cyst spells and the ability to create hordes of Undead. I paid my tax and scryed it. Then proceeded to raze every town that the tax guy went through and made every one of them villagers uncontrolled 2hd undead that blow up in d6 negative energy when killed. The DM and no DM after that ever taxed any of my characters after that. Best part is that when i made my paladin in the same game world i hunted down my own necromancer since it became the new BBEG of the game.
This.... is a thing of beauty. I now know what I want to play for a friend of mine's home campaign!
Interestingly a sunken warship is a grave, and can't be looted, but a sunken civilian ship can. So the Titanic can be looted to your hearts content, but that U-Boat is sacred territory.
And while many archeologists aren't looting for profit, many of their sponsors are. Those museums and Universities are out to make money either directly or indirectly off the items found.
And while many archeologists aren't looting for profit,
I guess it depends how you define 'profit'. Archaeologists are paid by their sponsors (profit), get to write academic papers that increase their peer status (profit) and attract more sponsors (profit).
The only difference between archaeologists and looters (I'll call them that rather than grave diggers, as neither necessarily is digging up graves) is that archaeologists potentially offer some net benefit to society rather than just themselves. Expanding human knowledge is something I consider a positive thing.
Don't get me wrong, beyond a certain point, everything in the ground is fair game. We don't even really let OUR dead hang around in the dirt for more than 75 years or so if we need the graveyard space. Digging up the past can be interesting and exciting, if not always 'fun', and I can see why archaeologists do it. But ultimately they have an overblown sense of their own importance.
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This all depends on what kind of game you are running.
First of all, if the players end up getting ahead of the wealth by level curve, the GM can use taxes as a way of bringing this back in line.
Otherwise, it all depends on your game universe.
Golarion seems to have a culture based on earth society from between 1850 and 1900 AD. People are largely literate and societies are structured. Police forces and large government bureaucracies exist. Such a society will use property taxes, import duties, and various fees to raise money. Even in this period in earth history though, income taxes were largely unknown as they required a level of reporting and record-keeping beyond the capacity of the infrastructure of the time.
On the other hand, if you are using a medieval setting, then taxation definitely exists, but is done on a practical basis, understanding that most people are illiterate and taxes based on extensive record-keeping are basically impossible. Instead fees levied against material goods that act as collateral are the most common, since they are the easiest to enforce; violators have the property in question seized.
Medieval taxes are collected in a variety of ways. First of all, tolls will have to be paid by people travelling along highways, crossing bridges, and upon entering cities. For most adventurers these amounts will be relatively trivial, but adventurers tend to get wealthy pretty fast. However, while the amounts may seem small they do pay for the maintenance of the roads and the defences of the cities in question. A normal toll would be about 5 copper pieces per person, 1 silver piece per horse, ox, or other beast of burden, and 2 silver per cart or wagon.
Similar (but much more expensive) fees must be paid when a ship enters a port (normally a port will require ships to hire a local pilot to guide the ship into port safely - this is called a piloting fee) and also fees are charged based on the amount of dock space the ship takes up (by counting the length of the ship in feet - this is called a wharfage fee). A ship that is registered in a town as it's home port pays an annual fee instead of a fee per day. These fees are collected by the harbourmaster. A Piloting fee will likely be between 2 and 10 gp depending on the size of the port (larger ports charge more). Wharfage will commonly be 1-3 sp per foot of ship length per day. Registry normally would cost between 30 to 60 times the daily wharfage rate.
Upon entering a market town, anyone importing goods into the town aside from foodstuffs will have to pay a tax on the value of such goods (commonly called a hawking tax). This value will vary from town to town (with higher taxes paid at bigger towns) but 10% of value would be about average. Of course, this value is estimated by a tax assessor and a suitable bribe will normally let you off with a lower assessed value.
People who do not intend to sell their goods right away and do not wish to pay this tax may instead place their goods in bond in a government-run warehouse. The fee for this (called a bonding tax) is normally around 1-2% of goods value per month stored, and if the merchant decides later to sell the goods in town he still needs to pay the hawking tax.
Market towns have a monopoly on running a market in a given district (typically around a 5-mile radius around the town) and anyone trying to set up a roadside stall to sell their goods outside of town will at the very least get their goods confiscated for tax evasion, and they may face charges.
Of course, a bag of holding containing a variety of magic items would be difficult for a tax assessor to see, never mind evaluate. It is possible that in larger cities wizards or sages would work as tax assessors, evaluating the value of magical goods. However, if your game does not include bargaining and magic items are always sold at a flat 50% of value, it could be easily said that the price you are receiving includes the deduction for taxes paid.
Towns also raise taxes through property taxes, since real estate cannot be hidden, not can it be taken out of the town. This won't be an issue for most players unless they actually buy property or set up a headquarters within a town. Many players will want to do this, and there's no reason why they shouldn't, but remember that sinking money into property that has no use on an adventure is effectively reducing their total wealth, since the wealth-by-level table is used to calculate the value of their adventuring gear. When a player buys a house he is basically taking money that could have been used to buy magic items and getting property that will not impact his ability to complete adventures at all. So just buying property in the first place is essentially a "tax" in a Pathfinder game.
For the record, property taxes in medieval towns typically would be 5-10% of value per annum. Commercial properties sanctioned by a guild normally pay a significantly lower tax rate, but those properties are more valuable. As with hawking and bonding taxes, this amount is based on an estimation made by an assessor, and bribery may get you a lower assessed value for your property.
In rural environments property taxes are less likely simply because the commoners will not actually own any; usually in a rural estate all land and property will belong to the local lord. Individual peasants will "hold" specific amounts of land from the lord and will owe both a tax (or rent) for this land and also a set amount of labor they must perform for the lord on the lord's land. This is commonly 3-5 days of labor and 4sp per acre held; a wealthy peasant family will hold 30-40 acres. Note that the tax or rent is commonly paid in goods such as grain or produce rather than cash. There may also be a head tax charged per person above the age of seven or a tax paid per household.
One more thing to remember; throughout the middle ages tax collectors were viewed as villains and scoundrels and were thought of a little better than bandits. A tax collector commonly paid a flat rate to his lord for the right to collect taxes and then if he raised a surplus he got to keep it (this process is known as "tax farming"). As a result tax collectors were professionals who performed their duties in order to make a profit off of others and were not well liked, though they were protected by law.
Wow, this post went on way longer than I planned. Hope it was useful.
Peet