America: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 35 Alms Tax (Revised)

As evening approached, Allen Zhang also returned to the main base of the campsite under Bridge No. 19.

At this time, Dominic was setting up tents with Sieg by the roadside, choosing a location outside on the street at the west end of the underpass, rather than living inside the bridge.

Because after storing the cans, there wasn’t much space left inside, only enough to accommodate a maximum of three tents.

The tents and supplies were clearly also obtained from the Green Word Shelter, where Sieg was lucky to have arrived when the shelter had plenty of materials.

He had also changed into a new sweatshirt and a new pair of shoes that fit his size, the only constant being the camouflage military hat on his head.

Cleaned up, he looked somewhat more spirited.

"Hey! I’m back! Friends!"

Allen called out.

Dominic and Sieg also immediately greeted him enthusiastically, and Allen took the opportunity to return the 20 US Dollars that had been stolen from Dominic.

He turned around and found that Dave was also there.

Unexpectedly, little Lori was there too. Didn’t he go to the roadside to wash windshields for begging?

Allen looked at Dave, who was busy writing and drawing, while Black sat there like a towering figure. Walking over to take a look, he asked in confusion, "What are you guys doing?"

Dave looked up at him and said with a smile, "I’m helping little Lori fill out the tax form."

"Taxes? What taxes does little Lori have to file? Doesn’t he not have a job?" Allen was confused.

Dave answered, "Begging tax."

"What tax?"

That left Allen dumbfounded.

Begging tax?

Wait, so I’m reduced to begging, and I still have to pay taxes?

With a weird look, Dave said, "Didn’t you know? Homeless begging and Zero-Dollar Purchase also need to file taxes."

"...I really didn’t know that." This touched on Allen’s blind spot of knowledge.

Dave immediately seriously told him, "In the United States you can forget anything, but you absolutely cannot forget to pay taxes!"

"Bro, do you know what Al Capone, the Italian Mafia godfather of Chicago, said before he died?"

Little Lori couldn’t sit still either, and with his deep, husky voice said, "Heavy weapons are better than light ones, take safety measures when sleeping with women, and definitely don’t forget to pay the IRS!"

The gang leader that even the FBI couldn’t handle was eventually arrested by the National Tax Bureau on charges of tax evasion, and the several people involved were sentenced to a total of 25,000 years in prison. These are bloody lessons!

Dave immediately supplemented Allen with relevant legal and tax knowledge.

Two things that Americans cannot escape in life: death and taxes.

It’s said that the tax law documents of all the states in the USA, if piled up, would reach a terrifying three million pages!! Much thicker than their history books, by a huge margin.

Singles tax, scenery tax, wig tax, tattoo tax, entertainment tax, abortion tax, gift tax, fitness tax, sales tax, transaction tax, consumption tax, fresh fruit tax, pet grooming tax, strip performance tax...

The nation of myriad taxes.

Everything is taxed.

On the West Coast, even street begging requires you to pay taxes as a legal citizen.

Whatever a homeless person buys with a shopping voucher gets recorded, and if it exceeds the amount of the shopping voucher and the subsidy of that month, an extra income is discovered during an audit, requiring them to declare the taxes. If you don’t pay taxes, just wait to have your subsidy docked next month.

You don’t have to pay taxes on picking up cans though, since that is considered a part of the recycling project.

The reason cans are valuable is that an environmental tax of 5 to 10 cents is already paid when a person buys a beverage, and the money you earn from selling cans has already been paid by the shoppers, contributing to a positive cycle.

This is also the reason why most homeless people would rather compete over dumpster diving than resort to begging.

In California, cans can only be sold to local recycling stations, and it’s illegal to engage in interstate can trafficking.

There was a Latino family of eight who made a whopping 7.6 million US Dollars by trafficking cans between states, only to be charged with illegal fraud and other violations later.

The loophole they exploited was bringing cans from other states to sell in California, causing great economic losses to the environmental agencies and the state government.

When a beverage was sold, the Caliifornia government could tax it for 5 to 10 cents; recycling cans would cost 5 to 7 cents, profiting the recycling companies, and the environmental agencies could make 3 to 5 cents, at worst breaking even.

But now, before the promised 10 cents in taxes could be collected, countless 5 cent payments were given out, opening up a huge deficit, and the accounts didn’t tally. Who could stand it?

Dealing in cans locally in California is tax-exempt, but that’s only because you don’t earn enough. Once the earnings exceed a certain amount, you are also required to file taxes.

Old Qi People were long used to having their personal income first slashed by the IRS.

Dave seriously helped little Lori fill out her tax form, burying his head in writing and calculating for a while, afraid of making a mistake with a zero. This was also his part-time job; he would usually help neighbors like Simone with their tax returns too.

After all, tax matters are too complicated, not something the average person can figure out, and the IRS has clear regulations that you need to compute your taxes on your own. They won’t remind you how much you should pay.

Although they clearly know in the background how much you owe, they just won’t remind you, fully relying on your own sense of responsibility. This often leads to many people miscalculating their taxes and receiving fines.

If you pay too much in taxes, the IRS won’t refund you; if you pay too little, a week later you will receive a tax arrears mail from the IRS, along with penalty interest.

Sometimes, employees at some tax offices will even intentionally delay, not taking action when you originally only owed 160 US Dollars. After the delay, you end up with a fine of 5,000 US Dollars plus interest before they notify you.

How disgusting is that?

Allen Zhang felt such horror.

Truly the West Factory of the United States.

He could only change the subject, asking: "How is your case going, Dave? Did you win?" freёweɓnovel.com

"Don’t even mention it. After my vehement arguing, the court postponed the lawsuit."

Immediately, Dave became dispirited, like a deflated ball.

Allen Zhang breathed a sigh of relief; at least there was no defeat. You’ve made great progress!

Immediately comforting him: "It’s okay, there’s always a next time, isn’t there?"

"There won’t be a next time."

Dave shook his head with a bitter smile: "That family is moving out of the community soon, to another place, meaning this case has lost its purpose, and I screwed it up again."

"..."

Allen Zhang was at a loss for words, I knew you weren’t up to it. At least this time you didn’t mess up your employer.

I was thinking of asking you to be our team’s professional lawyer, but given your performance, I feel I need to carefully reconsider.

Not wanting to disturb Dave and little Lori’s work anymore, Allen Zhang turned around to help Dominic and Sieg set up tents, then after arranging their things, he put away the things he bought into the tent.

It took some time to tidy up the wires and install the solar charger. After trying it out on his phone, good, no more power shortage from now on.

Previously he had always been using chargers belonging to Dominic and his friend, now it’s much more convenient.

Night fell quickly.

They had planned to spend a lot of money going to the supermarket to buy some food, celebrating the new member joining, but surprisingly, Sarah came by with several portions of sweet and sour fried chicken, and also brought some soon-to-expire beer.

The 24-hour Blitz supermarket where she works diligently always has food nearing expiration that needs to be discarded. As long as you’re not too unlucky while roaming the streets, you won’t starve - at most, just increased mental pressure, leading to a higher risk of going crazy with a mental breakdown.

It’s just a pity that many people in the camp didn’t have time today, so there was no gathering.

Dominic also brought over a big and small bag of snacks like jelly and yogurt from Rena.

A few sat on the sofa, snacking and chatting, discussing the next day’s business distribution.

Dominic delegated Hopson Street to David and Gate, planning to take Sieg with him to meet Leo on the two new streets that Allen Zhang had secured, and mark up the graffiti tag to officially declare that Lori Louis 19 is in charge of that territory.

Teaching Sieg the survival tricks of street life hands-on, waiting for him to graduate before taking over other street operations or recruiting new members to the organization.

Grow the ranks! Shine even brighter! When you’re financially powerful enough, arm yourself with AKs, others with rifles, and deliver a crushing blow to the scavenger groups on the streets!

Allen Zhang had no special plans, more dependent on if any new information came up tomorrow to properly arrange his own time.

After eating and drinking their fill, chatting briefly, Dominic was sleepy as he got up too early today, and they declared the meeting over, each went to boost their energy.

Allen Zhang was about to sleep in the tent when he received a message from Olivia.

He opened the image to enlarge.

A white incandescent light, it seemed like a small changing room, with chestnut-red curly hair and a seductive figure, wearing only a three-point outfit.

Olivia: Does it look good?

Allen Zhang: Pretty nice, but I’m about to go to sleep. :)

Olivia: Okay then.

Clearly a bit disappointed. But she must know that Allen Zhang couldn’t possibly teleport to the property department in Corona Crown District for a passionate encounter.

Allen Zhang simply replied to her, wishing her good night, and didn’t communicate further.

Nothing else happened.