Everyone needs money, even in the virtual universe of VGA Planets, but how do you go about maximising your cash flow and still allow your clans to grow? Clan growth is of major importance in the game because if you "ain't got any clans, you ain't gonna have a very good chance of surviving the game". So clan growth is one of the first considerations you must make when deciding on a tax strategy.

Well I'm going to just tax at 5% and my clans will love me and they will grow!!! Big negative!!! It may sound like a reasonable strategy, but even if you tax at 1% clan growth is slower than at 0%. And who can live off a 5% tax rate anyway? I gotta have ships!! I gotta have torps and fighters!!
There is an interesting fact about Planets that you may not be aware of. Planets could care less if you tax at 5% or 50% as long as you let happiness points build back up to 70 or higher. 70 happiness points or more is what is required for your clans to grow. Go below 70 HP's and no growth will occur. There are also a lot more variables in clan growth like temperature, building structures, and even overpopulation.

Now when I refer to clans, I am also referring to native clans. The natives are where the money is at. Get yourself an Insectoid unity planet and you've got it made, right? True, but how do you go about maximising the cash that you can get from such a planets natives?
I have developed a tax plan with the help of some very distinguished players, and have worked a lot of the bugs out, to guide you in your quest for domination of your empire, and your enemies. The more money you have, the more powerful you are, hopefully.[G]

Setting tax rate
1 Only tax colonist clans when you absolutely must. If it is your Home World or a planet without natives you must tax them. Natives are where the real money is, so on planets with natives, don't tax your clans at all, but let them grow uninhibited. Also make sure that you have the required amount of colonist clans on the planet to enable you to tax all the natives.

2 On planets with a high population of natives with a good government you must decide if you are going to want money or minerals from the planet. If it's money you want then don't keep building mines, factories and defence posts. Build only the minimum required structures on the planet. Also take a look at the temperature to see if its a hot or cold planet. These will affect the strategy that you will eventually employ.

3 Alternate a high tax rate with 0% every other turn. I use 22% and alternate with 0%. Never allow HP's to stay below 70. If they go below 70, then give your clans a break and let them off the hook for a couple of turns. One guy I know taxes 1 turn at 40% and then 4 turns at 0%. This strategy actually allows for the fastest clan growth, but the money is not as good and it is hard to keep track of the last time you taxed them. With a 20% rate it is easy to keep track of and you will triple the money you are getting from a good planet. As long as you alternate with 0% and keep the HP's above 70 your native clans will grow at an unbelievable pace.

4 If you are not careful and keep building structures, or the planet isn't a good temp planet, then you can experience "tax burnout". This is when it takes an extremely long time to build HP's back up into the 80's and 90's. If this happens it is best to just tax at an even 5-10% and take what you can get. You can also experience this problem because of overpopulation of the natives. When this happens I no longer care if I am inhibiting the growth of the native population and will allow the HP's to drop into the 60's.

5 There are a lot of factors to consider when implementing your tax plan. Everyone needs money early in the game, so starting with an aggressive tax plan can help you get the quality builds that you need to survive. After the ship limit is reached you have time to let your natives chill out and get their HP's up. This will allow you to start taxing aggressively later on in the game when there are a lot of battles and the build queue is moving faster.

6 On planets where you don't have the proper amount of colonist clans to get all the taxes out of the natives, tax at the highest rate that you can and alternate with 0%. Sometimes that is only 5% and sometimes it's 17% , but if you want your natives to grow, alternate with 0%.

Avian natives
1 Sometimes you get those Avian unity planets that will allow you to tax into the 30's and 40% and still keep there HP's above 70. By all means do this. Avians are stupid, they don't care.[G]

2 If you use this strategy try very hard NOT to miss any turns. If you do miss one or two turns you can recover by not taxing for at least double the time that you were taxing at a high rate. You should have a pile of money to use in the mean time. If you miss more than three turns you are likely to find your natives rioting.[G]

In conclusion, now that I've revealed this strategy to everyone, I can expect more powerful enemies, so you may just want to forget I even told you about it. Hey, I might be lying to make all your natives start rioting and burn all your factories down. That's the ticket!!!
May your clans grow uninhibited until I come along and SSD your planet. Till then.....In Game!!!
This strategy was thought of, tested, and debugged by a lot of people. My thanks go to them. They are....

Hammer, Megalomaniac, Autopilot, The General

Magnum