The methods previously used in Russia to keep records of tax collectors—based on a payment booklet and the complex written reporting inseparable from it—proved inconvenient in practice, especially in areas with a semi-literate or illiterate population. Settlements in such areas were in most cases made "from memory" and "on trust," and the payment booklets often remained unused and were even destroyed. In this situation, after paying the monetary dues, the taxpayer received no reliable token confirming payment of the levies. Confusion often arose in the accounts, and supervision of the collectors' own activities became more difficult.
For this reason, the former justice of the peace mediator of Podolia Governorate, M.A. Skibinsky, proposed introducing a stamp-based system of tax administration for illiterate people—one that would eliminate arithmetic записи 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 by means of so-called "tickets," which sometimes existed for десятки of years and even centuries. In the 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 people, all the signs of monetary value long familiar to peasants were combined: stamps depicting coins of less than one ruble were given a round shape, and the others a rectangular one. The color of the stamps matched the color of the monetary denomination represented by the stamp: the one-ruble stamp was yellow, the three-ruble stamp green, the five-ruble stamp blue, and the ten-ruble stamp red; silver coins were indicated in gray, and copper coins in brown. Also, to distinguish the number of rubles and kopecks on the stamps, the corresponding number of small strokes was printed.
To control collectors on the one hand and protect the interests of taxpayers on the other, each stamp was made nominal by indicating 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 separate numbering. Next to the stamps on the same sheet were indicated the taxpayer's first name, patronymic, and surname, all taxable items belonging to him according to his household list, and the levies due from him. Thus, a nominal tax sheet was produced, grouping all tax demands предъявленные to the taxpayer, all grounds for these demands, documentary tokens (stamps) protecting the taxpayer from repeated collection of the same levies, and all personal accounts between the taxpayer and 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 when 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 starting in 1893. They were introduced in 44 uyezds of 21 governorates and in the Turkestan region. The benefit of introducing tax stamps was recognized at congresses of tax inspectors of the Turkestan region and Olonets Governorate, as well as by a number of губернские and uyezd institutions for peasant affairs and by tax inspectors of many uyezds.