Chapter 59: Charity
Walking up to the top of the hill, they went to one of the larger houses on the block.
"Rich people really do live in high places", Jeffrey said.
"Kinda like dragons", Samantha said.
"Kind of like dragons", Preston agreed as they walked up the brick steps.
Preston went up and rang the doorbell. After hearing sounds from inside Mr. Sheehan let them inside.
The living room was nicely decorated with a few indoor plants and a dark wood side tables. They sat on the couch next to the coffee table.
Samantha, Preston and Jeffrey all sat together.
"Can I get the three of you any refreshments?", Mr. Sheehan asked.
"Sprite, Water, Pepsi?", said from the kitchen as he grabbed two bottles of water.
"I'll take a sprite Mr. Sheehan", Samantha requested.
"I'll take a sprite as well", Preston added.
"Well in that case, I'll grab two. Does your other friend need anything", Mr. Sheehan asked.
"I'm fine with bottled water", Jeffrey was more interested in other things than soda.
Mr. Sheehan brought them their drinks and grabbed some simple pamphlets and images he printed from the internet.
"So I heard you guys are working on a science project", Mr. Sheehan asked.
"You are correct", Preston said a little directly.
Samantha nudged him and Preston started to speak, "We were working on a science project when we wanted to promote it to some of our friends."
Preston gestured to Jeffrey, "Jeffrey here, started making Oobleck and realized it would be expensive to give it away, so he decided to sell it to cover the cost of making it."
Mr. Sheehan looked intrigued.
"That's interesting, so I'm to assume that you guys were quite successful and came to me looking for help", he suggested.
"Something like that", Samantha said "We don't really know what some of the steps are to do something like this. We want to make it bigger and we decided that we needed some help to try to start a business or something like that."
Mr. Sheehan thought for a little bit.
"Interesting, so you guys were working on a project and stumbled upon an idea to make money. That's really impressive", he summarized.
"Well, you did the right thing to talk to someone about it. This is really quite interesting as you guys are underage", Mr. Sheehan mentioned.
"Underage?", Jeffrey asked.
"yeah, basically once you're 14 you can start having an income and start working. Usually you get paid by a company and are taxed by the federal and state income tax. However, since it's a business it's a little more tricky", Mr. Sheehan continued.
"If you were adults, I'd recommend like a partnership or an LLC. Anything bigger like an S or C corp and you'd need to get lawyers and a whole lot of other requirements", Mr. Sheehan explained.
"To do something like this you usually need to talk to the tax office, get an EID number, get a business license, have an address and pay the franchise tax and fees", Charles Sheehan started pointing at a pamphlet.
He showed them some of the tables and work that he had prepared before.
"For something like this, you guys would count as being self-employed around the 15% tax bracket and if you want to make it a business pay the business fees as well", Mr. Sheehan explained how it worked.
"Now luckily our state has a flat fee, but there's still the registration and filing costs. $25 to file for registration, $200 for the annual franchise fee, a $50 business license and then the taxes on any profits you make afterwards", He started jotting it down on a notepad the price of what they were doing.
"What about the local neighborhood stands? They don't have to do all this.", Preston brought up a good point.
"Most of the coffee shops, pushcarts, food stands and local businesses have to go through this process. That's just the adult world. However Congress, if you guys haven't learned about it in school yet, are the law makers who pass laws and decide on rules like these", Mr. Sheehan answered
Mr. Sheehan went to his bookshelf and started looking through the books for the newspaper clippings to show them.
"So there are a few exceptions like, school silent auctions, bake sales, and charitable and non-profit organizations", Mr. Sheehan pointed out.
"Like the girl scouts?", Samantha asked.
"Like the girl scouts", Mr. Sheehan nodded.
"Back to the topic, you guys are looking at having to pay around $400 to start something like this and will probably have to make about an extra $200 on top of that every year", Mr. Sheehan said.
"That's a lot of money", Mr. Sheehan mentioned.
"Yeah, well we made about $600 in the last few weeks", Preston said.
Jeffrey and Samantha were still fixated on all the zeros. Jeffrey knew he needed to save money, but he didn't know they would need that much. He was hoping they could keep more than the $30 they paid themselves.
"That's awesome, but now you need to tell the government", Mr. Sheehan tried to approach it as easily as possible.
"That way they don't come and take away all your money and put you in jail", Mr. Sheehan said.
After sitting for a while to let the words sink in Jeffrey spoke up.
"So what do we need to do now?", Jeffrey asked.
"Well, you don't have to report income below a certain amount and seeing as you're still dependents I'll need your parents signatures to fill out any paperwork", Mr. Sheehan told them.
Samantha and Preston genuinely looked a little lost. Jeffrey opened his bottle of water and drank some.
"I'll have to look over my notes and ask a few friends about this to make sure. However I'm very impressed with what you've all accomplished", Mr. Sheehan said.
"I don't mind checking in on you guys and setting things up. So for these first two sessions I won't charge you any money, but moving forwards we're going to have to move toward a business relationship if you guys want to be serious about this", Mr. Sheehan offered.
Preston and Samantha looked at each other and they were determined to see it through.
"Yeah, let's do it", Samantha said enthusiastically.
"I'm in, how about you Jeffrey?", Preston asked.
"No one said it was going to be easy, but I glad I'm doing it with both of you", Jeffrey said getting a little mushy while he was at it.
Mr. Sheehan laughed watching the three kids agree. They were something special alright.
"Oh, one last thing do we need our parents to get involved?", Jeffrey asked Mr. Sheehan.
"You mean to say you're parents don't know about this yet?", Mr. Sheehan was surprised at that last minute revelation.
"Um, my uncle knows a little bit?", Preston offered.
Mr. Sheehan started to regret his decision a little. He thought to himself "What in the world were they learning in school? He could easily get in trouble if news got out he was working with a bunch of kids. Angry parents was something he did not want to deal with, the last PTA meeting he attended was a nightmare"
"Say, are any of your parents on the PTA?", Mr. Sheehan asked.
"Uh my mom's the treasurer", Preston offered.
"My Dad's friends with one of the school board of education committee", Jeffrey brought up.
"Both my parents are lawyers", Samantha said.
Mr. Sheehan sat there at his seat.
Jeffrey and Preston talked for a little bit and they decided to leave. They still had homework to complete.
"Thanks for helping us our Mr. Sheehan", Jeffrey said leading them out the door.
"We'll talk more next time, when you're got everything ready", Preston waved goodbye.
Samantha followed them out.
On the coffee table was the books that Charles Sheehan had grabbed and the empty notepad he had written notes on. The three of them had taken a good chunk of the documents on the table.
"Haah, what an interesting bunch", Sheehan sighed.
Charles Cullen Sheehan started to look through the phone numbers and directories that he'd have to call later. He found his book of business cards and was busy thinking of ways to file taxes and explain it to their parents.
"Create a company", Charles Sheehan whispered. The only other person he knew that had experience with this sort of thing was Arnaut "zero" Hamza. This would probably be enough to drag him out, the man known as a Lion of fiction and the king of paperwork.