The methods previously used in Russia to keep records of tax collectors, based on a payment book and the complex written reporting inseparably linked to it, proved inconvenient in practice, especially in areas with a semi-literate or illiterate population. In such places, settlements in most cases were made “from memory” and “on trust,” while the payment books often went unused and were even destroyed. In such circumstances, after paying monetary dues the taxpayer received no reliable sign confirming that the levies had been paid. Accounts were often thrown into confusion, and supervision of the collectors’ own activities became difficult.
In view of this, the former justice of the peace mediator of Podolia Governorate, M.A. Skibinsky, proposed introducing for illiterate people a stamp-based system of tax administration that would eliminate arithmetic entries and be understandable to everyone. He justified his proposal by noting that the rural population had long been accustomed to settling with landowners for the use of land through so-called “tickets,” which in some places had existed for decades and even centuries. In settlements between taxpayers and the collector, Skibinsky replaced handwritten tickets with printed stamps.
In the design of the stamps, to make them understandable to illiterate users, all features of monetary value long familiar to peasants were combined: stamps depicting coins worth less than one ruble were given a round shape, the rest a quadrangular one. The coloring of the stamps matched the color of the monetary token depicted by the stamp: the one-ruble stamp was yellow, the three-ruble stamp green, the five-ruble stamp blue, the ten-ruble stamp red; silver coins were indicated in gray, copper coins in brown. Also, to distinguish the number of rubles and kopeks, the corresponding number of small strokes was printed on the stamps.
To control collectors on the one hand and protect the interests of taxpayers on the other, each stamp was made nominal by marking on the reverse the number of the householder to whom it belonged. All stamps of one taxpayer were combined on a single sheet intended only for him and secured with a separate numbering. Next to the stamps on the same sheet were indicated the taxpayer’s given name, patronymic, and surname, all taxable items belonging to him according to his household register, and the levies due from him. Thus, a personal tax sheet was produced, on which were grouped all tax demands предъявed to the taxpayer, all grounds for those demands, documentary tokens (stamps) protecting the taxpayer from repeated collection of the same levies, and all the taxpayer’s personal accounts with the tax collector. The sheets of all taxpayers under a collector’s jurisdiction were bound into a cord-bound so-called “control book,” which was kept by the collector.
Tax stamps were used in collecting direct taxes from persons of the taxable estate living in rural areas. Initially, as an experiment, they were introduced in certain rural communities of Podolia Governorate (Ukraine), which confirmed the convenience of their use.
In practice, tax stamps began to be used from 1893. They were introduced in 44 districts of 21 governorates and in the Turkestan Region. The benefit from the introduction of tax stamps was recognized at congresses of tax inspectors of the Turkestan Region and Olonets Governorate, as well as by a number of provincial and district institutions for peasant affairs and by tax inspectors of many districts.