Taking stock of Stark Industries

Around the Christmas holidays, a time when lovers or families should be spending time together, Stark Tower in New York City is anything but peaceful. The accounting, tax, and legal departments are brightly lit, with all employees still working overtime.

In addition, the heads and managers of Stark's various businesses across the country also gathered in New York, bringing with them their company's financial documents, in response to the dramatic changes within the group.

A steady stream of concise reports and detailed financial statements were sent to the chairman's office on the top floor.

As the heir to Stark Industries, Tony Stark had been in this room for three days straight. His eyes bloodshot, he was ushered into the bathroom to clean himself up. Because if he didn't wash soon, he'd be in serious trouble. Fighting alongside him were Howard Stark's most trusted and long-term business partner, Obadiah Stane; and the Stark Family's butler, Edwin JARVIS.

Both of them have families and other jobs, so it's impossible for them to hide in the chairman's office like Tony and never leave. They had just returned to the company from their respective homes to assist this young master.

Finally managing to get the young master, who seemed to have gone mad for no apparent reason, to take a shower, Obadiah tidying up the reports, spoke first, "Has Tony taken the wrong medicine? I couldn't find him at the funeral, and I thought he had run away again like before."

"Even if we manage to persuade him to come back, it will take another year or two before he reluctantly agrees to inherit the group. I didn't expect him to be more enthusiastic than any of us now. Has he really taken the wrong medicine? Or has someone replaced him?"

Edwin, who was tidying up the messy office, said, "Young Master Tony has come to his senses; isn't that a good thing?"

Although there are nine months to pay the estate tax, it's actually very urgent. The sooner he gets into the process, the more leeway we'll have.

"That's true. But with him in such a rush, I'm worried he might impulsively do something irrational."

"Obadiah, what irrational thing do you think I would do? Shut down all of Stark Industries?" Tony, after a quick shower and changing into clean clothes, came out.

Obadiah showed no embarrassment at being exposed for speaking behind someone's back. He stated bluntly, "Tony, you need to understand one thing: according to United States law, no matter what you want to do, whether you want to shut down Stark Industries or anything else, you have to pay off your estate tax first before you have full legal rights."

"If you have a moment of weakness and smash up Stark Industries, and then can't pay the inheritance tax, then you won't be able to achieve your dream of starting from scratch; you'll have to start with debt."

"I do intend to do that," Tony said simply, making the two old Stark Family retainers uneasy. "But it might not be what you expect."

Obadiah, feeling like he'd just ridden a rollercoaster, felt his heart pounding. Fighting the urge to faint, he said, "Tony, tell me more. Don't scare your old man to death."

Tony picked up a few handwritten drafts from the table, gestured to the sofa, and said, "Obadiah, have a seat. It would be a big problem for me if you got sick now. JARVIS, Wayne, thank you for your help."

"Okay." JARVIS walked to the small bar and asked, "Does Mr. Stane need anything?"

"Yes, I'll have one too."

Tony sat down on the sofa, staring at what he was writing in his hand, and said, "JARVIS, have a drink too. Then sit down with me; I have some things I'd like to hear your thoughts on."

"Yes, young master." The old servant placed three cups on the silver tray, poured the wine, and carried the wine bottle to the low table.

Tony then began, "I believe you all know Stark Industries better than I do. Although we have shareholders, we are not publicly listed or traded on the primary or secondary market. I think that's the biggest reason why those devils on Wall Street are keeping a close eye on us."

Obadiah said, "Yes, I advised Howard on this matter. Although we have the support of the military, in the United States, trying to monopolize a business doesn't end well."

"Stop, stop, stop. I have a plan for this." Tony interrupted his uncle, who was still talking. He knew that if he let him have his way, he could talk for three days and three nights.

Tony said, "My main point is that thankfully we're not on the stock market, so our shareholding structure is relatively simple. Stark Industries should actually be called Stark Group, and you all own a significant number of shares in certain companies."

"But two foundations are also included: the New York City Veterans Foundation and the Stark Education and Cultural Promotion Foundation. What do these two foundations do?"

"In many companies, these two foundations hold a significant percentage of shares. The latter is present in almost all companies within the group, while the former is present in almost all companies with particularly strong financial reports."

Edwin JARVIS replied, "My lord, the Stark Education and Cultural Promotion Foundation is a foundation established by the master in accordance with Jews practices to avoid huge inheritance taxes."

"You have always been the registrar of this foundation. However, there are certain restrictions on the transfer of assets each year. Although the gentleman has been doing this, a large amount of assets are still registered in his own name."

"What about the New York City Veterans Foundation? What is its relationship with the Veterans Association?"

The latter is an official United States. organization, while the former is essentially a front for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. JARVIS couldn't elaborate on this, as it was classified.

He thought for a moment and could only say, "The Veterans Foundation is different from the Veterans Association. It's a privately established organization, and its head has always been Ms. Peggy Ms. Carter is considered the successor to Captain America. However, she has recently been looking for a successor and plans to retire."

"Ah, it's Auntie." Tony shuddered; another woman he couldn't afford to mess with.

However, considering the old man's camaraderie with those people, it wouldn't be surprising if he did something. There might even be military connections behind him, so Tony decided not to pursue that portion of the shares and just get their support.

Tony said, "Based on the results of these past few days of overtime work, the audited amount shows that I still need to contribute a total of 3.4 billion to the U.S. government, not counting the odd amounts. Is this amount correct? It's several times more than the entire group's working capital combined."

Obadiah, however, seemed somewhat gloating, saying, "This is because we don't need to publish our financial statements, so the outside world can't be sure about Stark Industries ' situation. Otherwise, according to what those newspapers are saying, the inheritance tax you'd have to pay would be an astronomical figure of hundreds of billions."