American Tax Officer

"According to the Black Tax Law, those with incomes exceeding $91,151 but less than $190,150 need to pay a 25% tax rate,"

"25%, this is way too much!"

Costi and his four companions were furious again.

Although they were apprehensive about the National Revenue Service, the prospect of paying such a high tax rate equivalent to a quarter of their income naturally made them livid.

"Excessive?"

David looked at Costi with a slightly sarcastic tone, "Even if it's excessive, can it be more so than your own actions of extorting others?"

"If I may be so bold, what is the difference between your National Revenue Service acting this way and our acts of extortion?"

David laughed and replied, "You're right, fundamentally there's no difference, but there's one thing you have to realize, we are legal, and you are illegal, so you have to pay the taxes because you have no other choice!"

"You..."

Costi and his companions were beside themselves with rage, and now they finally understood what the saying 'the official's word is always final' truly meant.

But there was nothing they could do since David was indeed correct.

Their actions were disreputable, while the Black Tax Law by the National Revenue Service seemed like robbery too, but who could argue when it had been passed by Congress and written into law?

"I've said my piece, whether you pay or not is up to you!"

David had already figured out that despite Costi's resistant demeanor, he was actually smart, so there was no need for further idle talk.

...

On the way back, Nisen joked, "I got a real kick out of seeing you like that earlier, next time let me 'contribute' to the nation too!"

Yang Yezi was not bad looking at all, he had indeed made him die of envy just now.

"Sure, but I think a place like a Strip Club might suit you better!"

Nisen was a bit embarrassed and retorted, "What Strip Club? I never go to those places!"

David gave him a meaningful glance but in the end just smiled and didn't say another word.

Meanwhile.

Costi and his five associates had already returned to their headquarters.

They had thought that they would be hunters again today, but unexpectedly, they ended up as prey, leaving each of them with a sense of something stuck in their throat.

They were used to extorting others, when had they ever been extorted like this?

The more they thought about it, the more intolerable it became. An Asian man named Xiāngchuān spoke up, "So what if it's the National Revenue Service, we just won't pay, let's see what they can do to us!"

"Ever heard of Al Capone?"

Xiāngchuān turned his head, not quite understanding why Costi was bringing this up.

"Al Capone, America's most ruthless mafia godfather from the last century, not even the President could handle him, but do you know how he ended up in prison?"

As a person from the Island Nation, Xiāngchuān was not very familiar with such an ancient mafia godfather, but he showed a curious attitude upon hearing this.

Costi continued, "It was the President and the FBI Director who jointly asked the National Revenue Service to step in.

Those bastards from the Revenue Service were really ruthless; they sent over a dozen undercover agents who infiltrated Capone's organization and managed to find a ledger signed by him after three years of undercover work, and they used tax evasion as the reason to put him behind bars!"

Listening up to this point, Xiāngchuān's mouth twitched, the President and FBI were powerless against this mafia boss, but in the end, he fell into the hands of the National Revenue Service, the impact of this revelation was not small.

Costi added, "And do you know what Al Capone said after he went to prison?"

"He left three famous quotes to the world that are still being quoted to this day!"

"First, heavy machine guns are more useful than submachine guns!"

"Second, always wear a 'T' during intimate moments."

"Third, pay taxes to the IRS on time every month!"

After hearing this, Xiāngchuān looked somewhat dejected, and the violent resistance to law in his heart had already started to fade away.

Even a mob boss like Al Capone couldn't stand up to the IRS, let alone their small fry like Karami.

But after pondering for a while, he tentatively proposed, "Since we can't provoke them, can we just run away?"

"Heh, run away?"

Costi smiled without any warmth and continued, "Do you think those bastards who've got our particulars so clearly worked out would let us get away?"

"Maybe the second we even start thinking about it, they'll break down the door and arrest us!"

On further thought, Xiāngchuān realized that it was true; if they knew all about their cases and income, obviously their every move was being closely watched by them.

And the way David had left looked like he was totally sure of them, apparently unafraid of them making a run for it suddenly.

"Pressed by circumstances, let's pay up. At least if we do, we can continue in this line of work. It's just earning a bit less, consider it paying to avert disaster!"

Just as David had anticipated, Costi was indeed a smart man.

And nobody else present voiced any objections to his words, which implied silent agreement.

...

The next morning, David arrived promptly at the office, ready to greet Costi's arrival.

It's worth mentioning that since he hadn't been to the office much over the past few days, he suddenly noticed that things seemed different from before.

In the past, everyone here would either be dealing with tax slips, documents, or leisurely drinking coffee and discussing the cases they had at hand.

But now, most of the inspectors arriving were either crazily swiping on their phones or vigorously moving their mouse over their computers.

David was curious and couldn't help but turn his head to look at Bucky, who was frantically operating, and only then did he realize that he was scrolling through the tax performance leaderboard.

Oh, that's right, didn't the leaderboard go live yesterday?

And as long as the data got entered into the system successfully, the leaderboard would basically update in real time.

No wonder everyone seemed busy and expectant today; they were checking out their own rankings.

"Haha, Dawson, we're ranked 9,689, making it into the top ten thousand!"

Just then, Bucky turned his head and excitedly shouted to his partner.

David looked on, somewhat speechless. Getting into the top ten thousand was something to be excited about?

Bucky's partner happened to be in the direction of David. After the excitement, when he suddenly noticed David paying attention to them, he quickly explained, "There are 140,000 inspectors nationwide, 70,000 inspection teams; for us to make it into the top ten thousand isn't a disgrace!"

"Hmm...?"

David seemed to recall something; although he had been in the top one hundred in the previous assessment period, his tax performance this period was still zero.

So now, according to what Bucky was saying about not being disgraced by being in the top ten thousand, didn't that mean that his presence at the bottom was way too shameful?