America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 35 Begging Tax (Revised)

As evening approached, Zhang Ailun returned to the base camp at the No. 19 Bridge Cave camp.

At this moment, Dominic and Sieg were setting up a tent by the roadside, on the street outside the western section of the bridge arch, and were not living inside the bridge arch.

Because after storing the canisters, there's not much space left inside; it can only accommodate a maximum of three tents.

The tents and supplies were obviously obtained from the Green Letter Containment Center. Sig was lucky; the center happened to have plenty of supplies.

Now he's wearing a new hoodie and a pair of new shoes that fit him perfectly, the only thing that hasn't changed is the camouflage military hat he's wearing.

After washing up, he looked somewhat more refreshed.

"Hey! I'm back, friends!"

Zhang Ailun greeted them.

Dominic and Sieg immediately greeted him warmly, and Zhang Ailun also returned the $20 that had been stolen from Dominic.

Turning around, I found Dave there too.

Surprisingly, Lori was there too. Was he not begging by cleaning windows on the roadside?

Zhang Ailun watched Dave scribbling and drawing, while the black man beside him sat like an iron tower. He walked over, glanced at him, and asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"

Dave looked up at him, smiled, and said, "I'm helping Lori fill out his tax forms."

"Tax filing? What kind of tax does Little Lori need to file? Isn't he unemployed?" Zhang Ailun asked, puzzled.

Dave replied, "Begging tax."

"What tax?"

Zhang Ailun was completely dumbfounded.

A begging tax?

No, I've fallen so low that I have to beg, yet I still have to pay taxes?

Dave gave him a strange look. "Don't you know? Homeless people begging and freebies also need to report taxes."

"...I really don't know." This touched on Zhang Ailun's blind spot in knowledge.

Dave immediately told him very seriously, "In America, you can forget anything, but you absolutely cannot forget to pay your taxes!"

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

Lori couldn't sit still any longer either. He said in his deep, husky voice, "Heavy weapons are better than light weapons. When you sleep with a woman, take precautions. And don't forget to pay your taxes to the IRS!"

Even the FBI couldn't handle these mob bosses, but they were eventually arrested by the IRS for tax evasion, and the group of men were sentenced to a combined 25,000 years in prison. These are stark lessons!

Dave also immediately supplemented Zhang Ailun's knowledge with relevant laws and tax laws.

Two things Americans can't escape in their lives: death and taxes.

It is said that the tax law explanatory documents from all the states in the United States, stacked together, would amount to a terrifying three million pages!! Much, much thicker than their history books.

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

A country with countless taxes.

Everything is subject to taxation.

On the West Coast, as a legal citizen, you have to pay taxes even if you're begging on the street.

Anything a homeless person buys using shopping vouchers will be recorded. If the amount exceeds the voucher amount plus the monthly subsidy, it will be investigated and found to be extra income, which will need to be declared for tax purposes. If you don't pay taxes, you can expect your subsidy to be deducted next month.

There's no need to pay taxes for collecting cans, as it falls under the category of environmental recycling.

The reason the cans are valuable is that when citizens buy beverages, they are also paying an environmental tax of 5-10 cents. The money you get from selling the cans has already been paid by the shoppers, so it's a positive cycle.

This is why most homeless people would rather rummage through trash cans and compete than beg.

Cans in California can only be sold to local recycling centers in California; selling cans across state lines is illegal.

There was a Latino family of eight who made a fortune of $760 million by traveling around the states reselling cans, and were then accused of illegal and fraudulent activities.

Because he exploited loopholes to bring cans from other states to California to sell, he caused enormous economic losses to the environmental protection department and the local state government.

本来饮料卖出去的时候加州政府能抽税5-10美分，回收罐子支出5-7美分由各回收企业获利，环保部门中间可以赚到3-5美分，最差也只是不赚不亏。

But we haven't even received the tax money for the 10 cents yet, and suddenly we've given out countless 5-cents, resulting in such a huge deficit and the accounts not matching up. Who can stand that?

The reason you don't have to pay taxes on reselling cans in California is only because you don't earn enough. If you earn more than a certain amount, you will need to file a tax return.

The old Manchus have long been accustomed to having their personal earnings first cut by the IRS.

Dave diligently helped Lori fill out the tax form, burying himself in writing and calculating for a while, afraid of filling in even a single zero incorrectly. This was also another part-time job of his; he would also help Simone and other neighbors with their tax returns on a regular basis.

After all, taxes are too complicated for the average person to understand. The IRS also has explicit regulations that require you to calculate your taxes yourself, and it won't remind you how much tax you need to pay.

Although they know exactly how much you should pay in the back office, they won't remind you; it's entirely up to your self-discipline. This leads many people to miscalculate and easily receive fines.

If you overpay taxes, the IRS won't give you a refund; if you underpay, you'll receive a tax refund email from the IRS every week, along with penalties and interest.

In some places, tax officials will even deliberately delay and ignore the issue. For example, if you only owe $160 and it's over after you pay it, they will drag it out until you owe $5000 in penalties and interest before they notify you.

Just look how disgusting this thing is.

Zhang Ailun felt utterly terrified.

No wonder it's called the American West Factory.

The only option was to change the subject, asking, "How's your case going, Dave? Did you win?"

"Don't even mention it. After my persistent arguments, the court postponed the case."

Dave immediately became listless, like a deflated balloon.

Zhang Ailun breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he didn't lose the case. He has made great progress!

He immediately comforted her, saying, "It's okay, there's always next time, isn't there?"

There won't be a next time.

Dave shook his head and gave a wry smile: "That family is moving out of the community soon, which means the case has basically lost its meaning. I've messed it up again."

"..."

Zhang Ailun was speechless. "I told you you weren't up to par. At least you didn't get stabbed in the gut by your employer this time."

We were originally planning to hire you as a professional lawyer on our team, but given your performance, I think we should reconsider.

Without disturbing Dave and Lori's work, Zhang Ailun turned to help Dominic and Sigza with their tents. After tidying up their things, he put all the things he had bought into the tent.

It took me a while to organize the wiring and install the solar charger. I tried charging my phone, and it worked great. I'll never run out of power again.

I've been using Dominic and his friend's chargers for a while now, which is much more convenient.

Night fell quickly.

They had originally planned to spend a lot of money to buy some food at the supermarket to celebrate the new addition to the family, but to everyone's surprise, Sarah delivered several servings of fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce and also brought them some beer that was about to expire.

Blitz works diligently at a 24-hour supermarket where there are always near-expiry foods that need to be thrown away. Anyway, as long as you're not too unlucky while homeless, you won't go hungry. At most, you'll be under a lot of mental stress and be prone to having seizures or developing mental illness.

Unfortunately, many people at the camp didn't have much time today, so the gathering was canceled.

Dominic also brought back bags and bags of snacks, jellies, yogurts, and the like from Rena.

The group sat on the sofa, eating snacks, chatting, and discussing the business allocation for tomorrow.

Dominic handed over Wapson Street to David and Gates to handle. He planned to take Sieg to meet Leo on the two streets that Zhang Allen had just conquered, and while he was at it, put up graffiti labels to officially announce that it was Lori Louis XIX's territory.

They teach Sig street survival skills step by step, and after the students have mastered them, they can take charge of business in other streets or recruit new people to join the organization.

Let's grow bigger and stronger! Let's create new glories! When we have the economic strength in the future, you'll get an AK, he'll get a rifle, and we'll crush the scavenger groups on the streets!

Zhang Ailun doesn't have any plans yet; he'll have to see what new information comes out tomorrow before making any arrangements for his time.

After eating and drinking their fill, they chatted briefly. Dominic had gotten up too early and was feeling a bit sleepy, so the group adjourned the meeting and went off to rest.

Zhang Ailun was lying in his tent, ready to go to sleep, when he received a message from Olivia.

Open the image and zoom in to take a closer look.

The white fluorescent light seemed to indicate a small changing room. She had reddish-brown curly hair and a seductive figure, and was only wearing a bikini.

Olivia: Is it pretty?

Zhang Ailun: It's pretty good, but I'm going to sleep soon. :)

Olivia: Okay.

It was clearly a bit of a disappointment. However, she certainly knew that Zhang Ailun couldn't teleport to the property management office in the Crown District of Colorado to have a heated argument with her.

Zhang Ailun gave her a simple reply, said goodnight, and then didn't communicate with her again.

Nothing happened.

(End of this chapter)