Chapter 16: Half a Month’s Assessment Period

"Who am I supposed to ask if you're asking me?"

Lewis muttered to himself but, as a superior, he still pretended to understand and said, "This must be that Zero Purchase case!"

"Zero Purchase case, wow, it looks like all the Zero Purchase Participants in our entire Lake District are here today!"

The Mediterranean white man's words made everyone's heart tremble slightly.

It's not hard to deal with Zero Purchase Participants; what's hard is to catch them all at once, a difficulty that could be said to be as high as the sky.

"Wait a second..."

The thick-browed man in a suit seemed to have noticed something and asked, "Chief Tax Officer Lewis, which team in your squad is handling this Zero Purchase case?"

"Nisen and David's team."

"David!"

With that, the rest could no longer remain calm.

They were well aware that David had just solved the Encar Casino robbery case the day before, creating the biggest revenue for the National Tax Bureau Lakeside District Sub-Bureau Branch since the enactment of the blacklist tax law.

Just one day had passed, and another big case was solved?

Not to mention these people.

Even Lewis himself was completely baffled.

David had been under his command for several months, but he had always been just compliant, never showing any remarkable ability!

How had he suddenly soared to great heights the moment the blacklist tax law was passed?

Could this kid really have such a talent for fighting crime and collecting taxes from criminals?

"Chief Tax Officer Lewis, there are indeed too many people today, and I see your subordinates are too busy. How about it, do you need my team to give you a hand?"

The thick-browed man in a suit asked with a smile.

"No thanks, Chief Tax Officer Hector. How could I accept when your team is so busy? There are indeed more people now, but my team members are capable of handling it properly!"

On the surface, Lewis was politely declining, but if you listened carefully, you could even detect a hint of pride in his tone.

The National Tax Bureau Lakeside District Sub-Bureau Branch has ten Chief Tax Officers and ten teams.

Since the blacklist tax law officially came into effect, the team led by Hector had been leading the pack in performance this past month.

While Lewis's team had not been at the bottom, they had been hovering around seventh or eighth place.

Finally, having solved two major cases in the past two days, they could now hold their heads high!

He also knew that Hector's offer to help was not out of pure kindness.

There was an unspoken rule in the National Tax Bureau: if you ask another team for help or support, you naturally have to share some of the credit with them.

Now, as long as these Zero Purchase Participants were recorded and the tax invoices issued, all the credit would belong to his team. Why would he want to share the credit with others?

"Fine, as you wish!"

Hector felt slightly annoyed, turned his head, and called out, "Scott, McLaren, Fernando, come to my office!"

Watching the named inspectors with their dejected looks, Lewis couldn't help but silently mourn for them in his mind.

Without a doubt, Hector must have seen his own team's consecutive success in cracking major cases these past couple of days while his team had not had much success and decided to seriously motivate his inspectors.

"Motivate them all you want, there are only two days left in the assessment period anyway!"

After the enactment of the blacklist tax law, according to instructions from Washington D.C. Headquarters, each Sub-Bureau Branch's assessment period was every half a month.

And the next assessment period would be in just two days.

Yesterday they collected three hundred and ninety-six thousand US dollars in unreported taxes, and although the data hasn't been tallied today, with so many people here, a hundred thousand US dollars is definitely in the bag!

In other words, their tax performance for this half-month assessment period is likely to be around five hundred thousand US dollars.

Such performance is enough to secure the top spot for his team in the Lake District Sub-Bureau Branch.

And maybe not just that...

It could even be possible that they are the top in the entire Three Divisions Branch of Las Vegas.

After all, during the last assessment period.

The highest tax achievement was only one hundred and thirteen thousand US dollars from the National Tax Bureau Avenue Sub-bureau Branch.

Even if in this half-month, all the major sub-bureaus had basically completed their reviews and tracking of criminal profiles, it would only double at most; it surely couldn't surpass their team's five hundred thousand, right?

Thinking of this, Lewis felt a wave of satisfaction. No matter how David managed to close this Zero Purchase Participant case, once things settled down, he decided he would definitely need to give proper praise!

...

Three hours later.

After the efforts of all eight inspectors on the team, the work on this group of Zero Purchase Participants was nearing its final stage.

"My count is twenty-three thousand six hundred US dollars."

"I have sixteen thousand three hundred and eighty US dollars."

"My count is..."

Listening to his teammates reporting their figures and holding the calculator, David kept adding the numbers until he hit the '=' key, and a '139010' figure popped up.

"One hundred thirty-nine thousand and ten!"

This figure wasn't much different from David's initial estimate.

And hearing this number, Bucky and others lit up with glows like fireflies.

"Mary, double-check it. If it's correct, we can go ahead and add it to the inventory!"

"Got it!"

Mary immediately started counting with the cash counting machine, along with the inventory department personnel.

Soon, the result came out. She gave David a nod indicating the number was correct, and then proceeded to take the money for inventory storage.

"By the way David, Chief Tax Officer Liu Yi mentioned earlier that once we're done, we should all head to his office!"

Hearing the reminder from a teammate, David didn't show much surprise.

Although today's tax revenue was nowhere near yesterday's, the impact made today was definitely several times greater than yesterday's.

He believed that by now, except for those up in Washington D.C. Headquarters on a business trip like the director and deputy director, everyone in the bureau would know about this matter.

"Then let's go!"

Upon reaching the fourth floor to Liu Yi's office, David first knocked on the door and, after hearing the words "come in" from inside, he led everyone in spiritedly.

Unlike his usual stern demeanor, Liu Yi's face was noticeably softer today, and his brows betrayed a faint sense of joy; anyone could see that he was in a great mood.

"Chief Tax Officer, you wanted to see us?"

Liu Yi nodded slightly and said, "Nisen, David, you've handled this case well; you've made our team proud!"

While he praised both Nisen and David, his main attention lingered on David because he knew that this case went smoothly largely due to David, who was probably the main contributor.

Next, Nisen didn't object nor show much change in expression, indirectly confirming Liu Yi's guess.

David didn't become complacent from the praise and responded with his usual composure, "Thank you for the praise, Chief Tax Officer. It's only our duty!"