Zero tax tactic

[dalgo]

It is possible to play a whole game with zero tax. The key is to use plenty of inland cities and limit your ports. (I usually have about 3 inland cities for each port). You need to have enough wagons/ships in each port to store your valuable goods. The tax years are fixed - at viceroy it is every 14 years starting in 1534, so you can prepare in advance.

At tax time store everything in port except one ton of a single item, then choose the 'Boston tea party' option. Obviously start with food, timber, sugar etc and hide your rum and muskets. When you run out of goods to throw in the harbour put Fugger in Congress and start again. Once you have Custom houses it gets easier because you can afford to lose your main export goods (they can still be traded at the Custom house).

This does involve an extra layer of management, but I do like seeing 'govt takes 0 gold (0% tax)' when I cash in my 7000 Cibola treasure.

[LordAzreal]

Good strategy. Especially when using the Spanish and are in the process of obliterating the Aztecs and Incas (I don't do it until I get Cortez, since the treasure is much greater then, and there's no charge for having the king send his galleons to haul it back home). Once there's no more natives to exploit, then, it's OK to have tax raised. Get Thomas Paine in the congress and it will cause your liberty bells to soar. Towards the end, it becomes important to produce lots of liberty bells as you need them to get more advisors in the congress and once independence is declared, you'll need them for the interventionary forces to help you in your war for independence.

So your 0 tax will work in the beginning when you need quick cash and lots of it. Later on though (when Paine is with you and the Aztecs and Incas are all gone), start opening your coinpurse to pay some tax. The liberty bells will be worth it.