Steep Taxes

Upon entering the Agency lobby, Charlotte saw Ginny lining up at the service desk organizing files and greeted her, "Hey, Ginny!"

Hearing Charlotte's voice, Ginny looked up at the man coming down from upstairs and said, "Good morning, Boss."

Charlotte, seeing Ginny still busy, walked over and asked, "How's things going?"

At this moment, Ginny finished organizing all the documents, handed them to Charlotte, and said, "Boss, these are the latest financial data. Please take a look."

Charlotte didn't reach out to take it, but instead said, "Golden Secretary, just give me a brief overview of the situation."

Ginny retrieved the documents and then said, "The gold and jewelry from last time have all been converted into cash. Due to issues with their origin and invoices, they were all discounted, resulting in a final return of US Dollar 3.5 million."

"The two spots in the Wax Bath recovery room were auctioned off for a total of $30 million, and the money has already been deposited into our account."

"Winston and Burada each contributed $15 million based on the average auction price. Through negotiations with them, the final price for the recovery room was set at 2 Gold Coin and $100,000 per service."

"The Continental Hotel originally wanted to use a full Gold Coin service model, but considering your significant need for cash, we will temporarily use Gold Coin + cash model. This can be changed if there are any changes later."

"Regarding revenue sharing, the Continental Hotel only receive one Gold Coin, while we receive one Gold Coin plus 100,000 US dollars. Accounts are settled monthly."

Upon hearing the auction price and usage fee for the Wax Bath recovery room, Charlotte nodded and said with satisfaction, "The price is not bad, let's go with what you agreed on."

"Have John Wick and the Carlos family both been sent out?"

Upon hearing Charlotte's question, Ginny replied, "John Wick has gone to the Continental Hotel in Morocco to oversee the recovery room there."

"Carlos is in charge of the Moscow Continental Hotel."

"Wesley is in charge of the London Continental Hotel."

"I equipped each of them with a ten-person squad of High Table Envoy."

Charlotte was quite satisfied with Ginny's arrangements and said, "Very good, I trust you to handle things."

Ginny was pleased to receive Charlotte's praise and smiled. She continued, "Besides that, there's also the income. This week, Iruka and the other two completed ten bounty missions, all of which were million-dollar bounties."

"The total reward is $10 million, with the Continental Hotel taking 10%, your side taking 20%, and the Agency receiving $2 million."

"The remaining money will be divided among the three of them."

"The income is 65.5 million. Now let me mention your expenses. The house next door has been purchased to build a recovery room. The total cost of the acquisition and renovation was 500,000 US dollars."

"In addition, because the assets Maktoum gifted to you are quite substantial, and the gift tax and inheritance tax are similar, you will need to pay a 35% gift tax."

"Since Elder Maktoum did not pay the gift tax for you, you will need to pay this amount yourself."

Hearing the figure of 35%, Charlotte's heart skipped a beat. The United States tax authorities were simply robbers. After calming down, Charlotte asked, "How much exactly do I need to pay?"

After a moment of silence, Ginny slowly said, "One hundred million."

"What?"

Charlotte was incredulous. This was far too much money—one hundred million in 2008! What did that mean? Did it mean that the generous gift Maktoum had prepared for him was worth three hundred million?

Ginny noticed Charlotte's surprise and continued, "This is even with your lifetime tax-free allowance of 10 million; otherwise, you would have had to pay an additional 3.5 million in taxes."

"Fortunately, this money doesn't need to be paid all at once. We can pay the tax in installments as we take over the property, or we can pay it all at once within the stipulated time after all the procedures are completed."

Charlotte calculated her cash balance, which totaled only 95 million. Even if she converted all the copper coins in the system into US dollars, she would still be 2 million short.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to pay now, otherwise it would drain his cash flow.

Charlotte looked at Ginny, who was still holding the documents, Charlotte asked, "Is there anything else?"

Ginny turned the page and continued, "Even without considering me, John Wick, and the Carlos family, your monthly pay to the Armed Force and housing maintenance costs is roughly one million US dollars."

"The annual property tax is around 3 million."

"In other words, without considering income, Boss, your annual expenses are at least 15 million."

"If we include our salaries, this amount should be over 20 million."

"But you don't need to worry, Boss. Apart from the income from the recovery room, the New York Continental Hotel will give 10% of its profits to the Elder of the jurisdiction every year."

"The various forces under your jurisdiction will also hand over 10% of their profits to you; this is the price for their loyalty to you."

"And it's not just you, Elder; they will also hand over ten percent of their profits to the High Table headquarters for its construction and maintenance."

"However, you won't receive this money until next year; the payment date hasn't arrived yet."

Charlotte wasn't surprised to hear that the High Table and the Elder would take 20% of the profits; those in the know understood that this percentage wasn't high.

Charlotte glanced at Ginny and slowly said, "Your wages, apart from the bounty for normal missions, shall be determined according to the Adjudicator's standards."

Ginny smiled charmingly and said, "Thank you, Boss!"

Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst, so Charlotte needs to find a way to make money. However, with the bounty missions from the Continental Hotel and the newly opened recovery room project, Charlotte is not worried about money.

Just as Charlotte was about to say something, the Agency door was pushed open.

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On the other side.

In Tony Stark's Villa, Pepper Potts was tidying up the room. She hadn't heard from Tony for over two months, and to be honest, she had almost given up hope.

Although Rhodey told him that Tony's body was not found at the site of the attack, Tony blood was still present.

The military has been searching; as long as no body is found, there is still a possibility of survival.

Tony's bodyguard Happy, was also in the Villa, helping to tidy up the rooms.

Clearly, the burly Happy wasn't suited for this task. Looking at Tony's secretary's sad expression, Happy thought for a moment and then spoke:

"Pepper, there's a place I don't know if I should tell you. You know, I'm Tony's bodyguard."

"Now, if anyone can still find Tony Stark, I think you could try contacting the owner of Charlotte Agency."

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