The methods previously used in Russia to keep records of tax collectors, based on a payment book and an inseparable, complex written reporting system, proved in practice to be inconvenient, especially in areas with a semi-literate or illiterate population. In such areas, settlements in most cases were made "from memory" and "on trust," while payment books often remained unused and were even destroyed. In this situation, after paying the monetary dues, the taxpayer received no reliable token confirming the payment of the charges. Confusion often arose in the accounts, and supervision over the activities of the collectors themselves became difficult.
In view of this, 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 entries and be understandable to all. 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 "chits," which had sometimes existed for decades and even centuries. In the settlements between taxpayers and the collector, Skibinsky replaced handwritten chits with printed stamps.
In the design of the stamps, to make them understandable to illiterate people, all signs of monetary value long familiar to peasants were combined: stamps depicting coins worth less than one ruble were given a round shape, while the others were quadrangular. 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, and the ten-ruble stamp red; silver coins were indicated in gray, copper coins in brown. Also, to distinguish the number of rubles and kopecks, the corresponding number of strokes was printed on the stamps.
To control collectors on the one hand and to protect the interests of taxpayers on the other, each stamp was given a personal assignment by indicating on the reverse the number of the head of household to whom it belonged. All stamps of one taxpayer were combined on a single sheet intended only for him and were secured by 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 list, and the charges due from him. Thus, a personalized tax sheet was produced, on which were grouped all tax demands предъявленные to the taxpayer, all grounds for these demands, documentary tokens (stamps) protecting the taxpayer from repeated collection of the same charges, and all personal accounts between the taxpayer and the tax collector. The sheets of all taxpayers under the 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 uezds of 21 governorates and in the Turkestan Krai. The benefit from the introduction of tax stamps was recognized at the congresses of tax inspectors of the Turkestan Krai and Olonets Governorate, as well as by a whole range of provincial and uezd institutions for peasant affairs and by tax inspectors of many uezds.