American Tax Officer

So, Bucky knew that in the past few days, David's tax performance was still at zero.

But no matter what, without the help of public funds, it would have been impossible for him to enter the top ten thousand list.

Thus, his offer was truly sincere.

"I will."

David responded with a sentence and did not say more, continuing his state of slacking off.

Until the time reached 10 o'clock.

At this moment, the nine people who came out of the elevator made him smile.

The newcomers were none other than Costi and his group.

After they arrived by David's side, Costi took the lead and said, "Inspector, we agree to pay the taxes, but before doing so, we need to ask some questions."

"Ask!"

"..."

Several minutes later, having received assurance that their identities would not be revealed and their futures would not be interfered with, Costi and his colleagues then took out the taxes to start paying...

...

On the fourth floor, in Chief Tax Officer Lewis's office.

At that moment, Lewis was staring at the computer screen, his brows furrowed.

"What's going on with David? It's been several days, and how come there's not a single point in tax performance?"

Last assessment period, David's inspection group made the top hundred, giving him a good bit of reflected glory—after all, it was the group he led!

As the leader of the group, his contributions naturally could not be ignored.

He had thought that with the support of public funds, David would soar even higher this assessment period.

But unexpectedly, several days had passed, and David's tax performance was still zero.

What was going on?

What were these two up to?

Bucky had already made it to the top ten thousand list, and the other two groups were decent enough.

Yet, the group that was in the top hundred last period had become the bottom dwellers. This made Lewis feel quite embarrassed, as if he had fallen from heaven to earth.

"Dudu dudu..."

Just as Lewis was frowning in worry, the phone on his desk rang. He picked it up: "What's the matter?"

"..."

A minute later, having put down the phone, Lewis's face instantly lit up with joy, and he said into the phone, "After it's deposited, have him come to my office!"

...

Over on the third floor in the Inspector's Office.

After an hour of busyness, David had finally finished the work of filing tax tickets and the like. He and Nisen checked the amounts together and discovered that the sum collected from these nine people totaled two hundred and sixteen thousand US dollars!

Both were very satisfied with this number.

They immediately arranged for the funds to be deposited.

About ten minutes later, Mary sent them a message telling them that the tax money had been successfully deposited.

Nisen didn't waste any time, immediately logging onto the National Tax Bureau's internal network. After entering their inspection group's name, he cried out in delight, "Haha, David, 812th place—we've made it into the national top thousand!"

812th place, far from their previous rank of 89th by a vast stretch.

But one must realize that for the past several days, they had been at the very bottom nationwide.

Not only had they surpassed tens of thousands of other inspectors nationwide, but they had also swiftly climbed to the top of the Lake District leaderboard.

Now, let's see who dares to laugh at them!

Once again, they could strut around the bureau with their heads held high!

Boasting a loud voice and with a hint of showiness, Nisen's shout instantly drew the attention of many nearby inspectors.

Some took out their phones, while others logged onto the internal network, all wanting to check the status of David and Nisen's team.

However, when they saw the figure of two hundred and sixteen thousand US dollars, they were instantly stunned.

Because there were few people who had come earlier, and with only nine cases handled by Costi, the inspectors thought they were dealing with only a few small fries and didn't pay much attention.

But who would have thought that these were not small fries at all? With taxes amounting to over two hundred thousand in one go, who were these people?

The other teams had been working themselves to the bone these past few days, and the least successful had only managed to pull in one or two thousand in tax achievements, with the more successful ones earning just thirty to fifty thousand at most.

Yet David's team had nabbed over two hundred thousand in one fell swoop.

Such a vast gap made the inspectors present feel very disheartened.

...

"Two hundred and sixteen thousand, rank eight hundred and twelve..."

Lewis looked at the tax revenue leaderboard, which updated in real-time with the rankings and data, feeling both surprised and somewhat despondent.

The surprise, of course, was due to the considerable amount of tax revenue.

The regret was that if this were the previous assessment period, over two hundred thousand in tax achievement could have entered the top four hundred, but now it only ranked eight hundred and twelve.

This also indirectly reflected that as time went on, the nation's inspectors had become more familiar with the rules of the black tax law and had gradually started to find their techniques and methods.

And this meant that the competition for positions on the tax achievement leaderboard would become even more fierce moving forward!

So could David still make it into the top one hundred before this assessment period ended?

For this question, Lewis could not guarantee an answer.

However, he had already decided that, by any means necessary, he would help David make one last push before the assessment period ended.

If he succeeded again, he would assume his position as the Deputy Tax Inspector in Detroit with great confidence.

Who would dare to question him when he had mentored inspectors who ranked in the top one hundred twice?

"Giggle giggle giggle..."

While Lewis was daydreaming, there came a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

The door opened, and David walked in, asking, "Chief Tax Officer Liu Yi, you called for me?"

Lewis gave a thumbs-up, his praise tinged with admiration: "You handled this tax evasion case beautifully!"

There was one thing he had to admit he really admired about David.

For instance, with this tax evasion case, if it had been assigned to any other inspector, even if they had managed to resolve it, they probably could have collected at most sixty thousand US dollars in taxes, or even less.

Because based on the intelligence reports, this gang was only implicated in dealings of forty thousand US dollars a month.

Dividing forty thousand among this gang and calculating according to the tax rate, the most one could collect would be only sixty thousand.

But David did even better, collecting over two hundred thousand.

What did that mean?

It meant that the information from the Intelligence Division was not accurate and that under David's exceptional investigative ability, these criminals had been severely hit!

This was a capability that not many inspectors in the bureau, nor even in the whole of Las Vegas, possessed.

David responded with false modesty, "You flatter me, Chief Tax Officer..."

"Although you're currently ranked eight hundred and twelve, there are still eleven days left. Tell me whatever help you need; if there's anything that needs investigating, just direct Bucky and his team to handle it. In short, I'll do my best to help you make it back into the top one hundred!"