Tax rate (Civ2)

The tax rate is a mechanic in Civilization II that controls the proportion of allocated to the three commercial resources (, and ) by each in the player's empire. It is accessed from the or the hotkey shortcut +. The player's current tax rate is displayed as three numbers next to the treasury on the , listed (x10).
== Overview ==
The tax screen consists of three sliders (one for each provision) that can be adjusted in increments of 10%, to a maximum scale of 100%. Raising or lowering each slider will automatically adjust others to balance; the "Lock" toggle freezes a slider's current value to ease configuration. These rates are instantly applied to the apportionment of in each city; uneven divisions round to whole numbers.
The tax screen also details the 's current , costs, gross , and production and research time based on the current rates. Most governments cannot assign 100% funding to a single field, and are instead subject to a "maximum rate" as outlined in the following table:
Government	Max. rate (%)
 	60
 	70
 	80
 	100
Note that in addition to a penalty to total science output, Fundamentalism's effective rate is limited to 50%; additional percentages instead provide .
== Strategy ==
At the beginning of the game, maximizing spending is a good strategy to obtain initial s as quickly as possible. Once the player has access to , science spending can be complemented or even supplemented by establishing s that provide lump-sum revenue. A player may also opt for minimal Science funding and use to outright. Once a civilization has acquired all practical technologies (), further research becomes redundant and the Science sector can be defunded.
The rate can generally be kept low, so long as maintenance does not exceed income. When taxes are tight, it may be preferable to create s in individual cities, rather than adjusting the tax rate empire-wide; be careful not to reassign s working high-Trade s, as this may neutralize net Tax income. Conversely, amassing a large treasury enables economic warfare, as and s can be outright, and rival and can be bribed to defect.
 spending becomes more important at higher s to address , but can otherwise be deferred until the player has strengthened their economy, relying on instead. and will usually require higher Luxury rates to compensate for their removal of , and/or from deployed s. However, lower absolute Science and Tax rates are counterbalanced by civilian governments' bonus. Similarly, high Luxury spending will facilitate , which under military governments can increase cities' Trade to civilian levels.
== Modding ==
Government maximum tax rates are largely hard-coded, but 's handicaps can be configured on Lines 18 and 19 in the section of .
 used in the Tax Rate screen are located on Lines 91–93 ("Taxes", "Luxuries", "Science") and 258–60 ("Maximum Rate", "How Shall We Distribute The Wealth", "Lock") under the section.
== Notes ==
== See also ==
* Tax rate in other games
Category:Game concepts (Civ2)