因应太平天国而开征的晚清厘金并未随着太平天国的失败而裁撤,反因洋务运动的举办而推广至全国,以至于厘金占清政府岁入的近1/5。同时厘金的诸多积弊也日益加重,因此对厘金的存废及其改革成为晚清社会关注的一大问题。官方和民间陆续有开征印花税以转换备受诟病的厘金的建议。庚子事变后,清末新政次第展开,厘金改革成为新政的重要内容之一。未经周密准备,清政府令于宣统元年九月在全国正式开征印花税。但清政府此时推行印花税已背弃了替代厘金的初衷,而是为了抵补因禁烟而造成的洋药、土药税厘的减少。印花税不仅未能取代厘金,反而成为厘金之外的又一项额外税捐。因此,在印花税推行的过程中,遇到了言官、地方政府、士人和商界的普遍抗议与抵制,不仅鸦片税款的抵补目的未能达到,而且招致了沸沸扬扬的反对风潮,直到清帝退位,印花税的征收并无实效。
The late Qing Lijin tax,which was imposed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,was not cut out after the failure of Taiping Rebellion,but was extended to the whole country for the Westernization Movement.It had accounted for near-ly 1/5 of the Qing government revenue.At the same time,many disadvantages were increasing heavily,thus the Lijin's existence or abolishment and reform became a big problem in the late Qing Dynasty.The officials and the nongovernmen-tal had a stamp to convert the much maligned Lijin tax.After the Gengzi Incident,the new deals were launched one after another by the late Qing government,and tax reform was one of the important content of the new deals.Without careful preparation,the Qing government imposed the official stamp duty in September of the first year of Xuantong in the whole country,but the stamp duty imposed by the Qing government abandoned the first intention of Lijin tax in order to offset the reduction of Lijin tax in banning on opium-smoking.The stamp duty could not replace the Lijin tax but became an additional tax after Lijin tax.Therefore in the process of stamp duty imposition,it encountered widespread protest and boycott from local governments,officials,scholars and businessmen.The purpose of offsetting opium tax failed to a-chieve,and there came the trend of opposition in the high profile agitation.The stamp duty had no actual effect till the Qing emperor abdicated.