American tax officials

Chapter 100: Who gave you the right to whine?

Gray's expression darkened slightly, then he replied, "Openly attacking your IRS chief? Is there some mistake...?"

William chuckled dismissively and replied, "A mistake? Do you think the IRS would make a mistake?"

Gray sighed, paused, and then said, "Let me be frank, Chief William. The owners of these establishments you're investigating own over a dozen establishments and other businesses in our Lake District. If your IRS were to seize them all, the number of people affected could reach thousands!"

"These unemployed people will not only cause instability in the lake area, but may also increase the funding needs for welfare and relief payments."

"I've received word that the owner from the Native American tribe has realized his mistake. He's willing to pay the taxes to your IRS and even the penalty!"

"Chief William, why don't we just let this go? It would benefit your IRS, and it would benefit our city as well!"

William thought to himself, “The person who assassinated me was from the IRS, and he was one of our most trusted tax officials recently. Can this matter just be left like this?”

Although he thought this way, he didn't directly voice his true thoughts. Instead, he replied, "Increasing welfare and relief payments for a thousand more people—our tax bureau can afford that!"

Gray's face darkened completely. He asked, "Chief William, your IRS can afford it, but what about our City Hall? We're all serving the country; we should be more understanding!"

William pondered for a moment.

After all, the other party is the vice mayor of Las Vegas, so it's not good to completely sever ties. If the city government doesn't cooperate or even goes against them, it will create obstacles for them in terms of tax revenue in the future...

But soon, he realized something and replied, "Vice Mayor Gray, it's not that I don't want to understand your city hall, but our Tax Chief David has suffered severe psychological trauma. Who will understand him?"

"Besides, I've already delegated the case handling authority to him. He's currently the star tax chief in our department, and even in the entire Las Vegas area. I can't interfere too much, do you understand?"

As a leader, the ability to deflect blame is still very important.

His words were actually implying to the other party that he couldn't make the decision on this matter!

Of course, if you can handle David, it's not impossible to turn a big problem into a small one and a small one into nothing!

However, he knew David's personality well; David would never let it go like that!

If David refused to let it go, then it was naturally none of his business as the bureau chief!

Gray understood the meaning behind William's words.

Based on the information he gathered from various sources, he knew that David was a bit difficult to deal with. That's why he didn't go directly to David, but instead wanted to find William and then use William, the bureau chief, to put pressure on him and resolve the matter.

But now that things have come to this point...

William was clearly unwilling to give an answer, so the only option was to try one's luck with David in person!

Thinking of this, Gray replied helplessly, "Alright then, where is Tax Chief David now? I'd like to see him!"

William picked up the phone: "Ottilia, come and take Deputy Mayor Gray to see Tax Chief David!"

Soon, a woman walked in and said, "Deputy Mayor Gray, please come with me!"

Gray followed her to an office door, knocked, and went inside after receiving a response.

"Chief Tax Officer David, this is Deputy Mayor Gray from our city office!"

David was somewhat surprised to hear that the man was the deputy mayor from the municipal office, and immediately looked the man in front of him up and down.

[Name: Grey Ivordor.]

Occupation: Deputy Mayor of Las Vegas.

Monthly income: Legal income US$19000, illegal income US$17.

[Income details: December 3, earned $50,000 by outsourcing a project in the lake area to a company; December 7, earned $20,000 by purchasing equipment; December 28, earned $100,000 by accepting a bribe from Lynch Aldridge...]

[More details: ...]

Tax payable: US$47600.

After reviewing the information of the deputy mayor in front of him, David was also stunned.

When he first set his sights on Lin Qi, he knew that the guy had an unusual background, but he never expected that he would get involved with the deputy mayor in front of him.

It seems that he only had himself to blame for not having thoroughly examined Lin Qi's information back then, otherwise this wouldn't have happened.

"Hello, Tax Chief David."

"Hello, Deputy Mayor Gray. What brings you here?"

Logically speaking, the city hall and the tax bureau are different administrative departments and generally do not have much overlap.

However, at this critical juncture when he was thoroughly cracking down on the Dieter Group, the deputy mayor suddenly visited.

Could it be that they're here because of Dieter's matter as well?

"It's like this, these past few days..."

Gray repeated what he had said to William at the beginning.

After hearing what he said, David finally understood.

Although the other party did not explicitly say that they came for Dieter, he had already understood the meaning behind their words.

All I wanted was for him to downplay the issue and let it go!

But how could he let Dieter get away with such a blatant assassination attempt so easily?

David replied with dissatisfaction, "Vice Mayor Gray, it's the IRS's responsibility to crack down on crime and collect taxes. If we don't take strong measures against those who violently refuse to pay and even dare to openly attack the IRS, how can we deter other criminals?"

"You're right, but the IRS's primary responsibility is taxation; I think it's better to leave criminal matters to the police!"

"How about this, our city hall will handle it, making him pay all the taxes in full, plus a fine as compensation. As for Dieter's assault case, let's leave it to our police station to handle, okay?"

It must be said that Gray's idea was good.

As long as the IRS doesn't arrest Dieter, even if the police do arrest him later, they can only symbolically detain him for a few days and then deal with the matter slowly once things have calmed down. That way, the matter will be over.

But he overlooked one point.

That was David's determination to take over Dietrich.

David flatly refused, saying, "Chief Gray, when did it become the police's place to interfere in matters that the IRS should be handling?"

Upon hearing this, Gray instantly flew into a rage.

According to regulations, the police station is directly under the leadership of the city hall.

Now that David says it's not the police department's place to get involved, doesn't that mean it's not the city hall's place to nitpick?

(End of this chapter)