"Think of it as a long-term investment. I made a little money on the stock market recently. Rather than hand it over to the IRS for nothing, I might as well use it to plan for my retirement."
Renard did not quite know whether to laugh or cry at that answer, but it also gave him a sense of sudden understanding.
That was how the world worked, especially in this country where capital and profit came before everything else. An ordinary person dropping a few coins for a pitiful homeless man on the roadside was a normal act of kindness.
But someone like Nick going to such lengths to set up a food truck business specifically for a homeless brother and sister was bound to invite speculation, especially when the younger sister, Gracie, was rather pretty. It made people all the more likely to question his motives.
As the saying went, the fewer complications, the better. Whatever others thought of Nick's excessive "helpfulness," neither hypocrite nor indiscriminate do-gooder was a particularly good label to wear these days.
But if it became a business venture, especially one involving "tax savings," everything seemed to make sense.
As a police officer-a government employee-Nick was a typical member of the W-2 income group. In simple terms, that meant "an employee's wages."
Normally, at the end of each year, his employer, the police department, would give him a W-2 Form clearly listing his total annual wages and the federal tax, state tax, Social Security tax, and so on that had already been withheld.
If Nick were an ordinary officer living solely on a fixed salary, his deductions would be few and strictly limited, essentially consisting of the standard deduction, mortgage interest, student loan interest, and a handful of other items. None of his work-related expenses,