America's Road to Fame

Chapter 16 Meta Investment Company
"According to your situation, just based on your current income, you will need to pay at least US$1 million in taxes when you file your tax return before April next year, but there are many places that can be deducted, such as in Hollywood before you The loss of the film and television company, the bank loan interest of Building 666, but even so, the tax you need to pay in the end will be more than 5000 million U.S. dollars." Alicia said to William Chen.

"Why do I see many people with more assets than me, who pay very low taxes, and even pay almost no taxes?" William Chen asked suspiciously.

"William, the reason why the taxes you need to pay is so high is because these incomes are all income obtained from investment in your own name, so they will be attributed to your personal income, and you will naturally have to pay personal income tax. Now most of the rich are common. The way to legally avoid tax is to reduce personal income, or even have no personal income. All income is reflected in the company's operations, understand?"

Alicia looked at William Chen in front of her, and felt that he didn't have the self-consciousness of a billionaire at all.

The United States nominally imposes extremely high taxes on the rich, with a maximum tax rate of more than 45%.But in fact?Wealthy people can hire a whole team of financial advisors to do legal financial planning for them and avoid most of the taxes.

In Chen William's previous life, the news organization ProPublica once conducted a survey. The 25 richest Americans, including Bezos, Bloomberg and Musk, paid only a relatively small amount between 2014 and 2018. Little income tax, sometimes none at all.

The survey revealed that the super-rich paid only a tiny fraction of their wealth in taxes — their collective net worth was estimated to have increased by $4010 billion over the period, paying $136 billion in income taxes,” The true tax rate" is only 3.4%.

"The first suggestion I give you is—all future business and investment activities must be carried out in the name of the company, so that income and losses caused by other acquisitions and operations can be deducted, greatly reducing your burden pay taxes.

In addition, the most common thing for the rich is to reduce your personal direct income. All your expenses can be paid through loans, and all properties under your name can be linked to the company, or you can use the company's Buy real estate or consumer goods such as cars and airplanes in name, so that the depreciation of these things can deduct part of the taxable income. "

Alicia said to William Chen in simple science: "These are still legal means of tax avoidance, such as those means of hiding income or transferring wealth through offshore companies. I don't recommend you use them. The IRS will deal with this in the future. The control is getting stricter, and once you are targeted by them, it will be very troublesome."

"In addition, I don't recommend that you do things too outrageously like some rich people. Those rich people who hardly pay taxes, even if their methods are legal, will be closely watched by the IRS. If there is any mistake, they will definitely be caught. Severe sanctions. Therefore, proper taxation is a must, and you have to understand that to make money under the protection of the United States, you must fulfill some of your obligations."

For her words, Chen Weilian still agrees with her, and he still has no objection to paying some taxes properly.

Especially his uncle and grandfather, who are also important figures in the donkey party, naturally he is easily targeted by the elephant party, so the less weaknesses he has, the better.

"Okay, Ms. Alicia, I feel that I have benefited a lot from talking with you, and I hope you can plan my investment strategy for me in the future." William Chen stretched out his hand to Alicia and said.

With an elegant smile on Alicia's face, she held his hand and said:
"It's a great honor, William. You can just call me Alicia from now on. Now your business situation is not too complicated, and I can handle it by myself. If the scale of the business expands in the future, it may be necessary to form a special team to handle it. It's your tax problem. But don't worry, I will do my best to make the most suitable choice for you, and it will make you feel worthwhile."

William Chen agrees with her words. According to what she said, compared with the taxes and fees that William Chen can save, the remuneration that needs to be paid to her is not worth mentioning.

"Remember my suggestion, William, you'd better register a company for investment as soon as possible, so as to facilitate the optimization of taxation in the future." Alicia finally said.

Registering a company is simple, William Chen can leave this matter to Uncle Tom.As for the name of the company, William Chen thought for a while, and suddenly thought of the name that Facebook changed in his previous life——Meta, which came from the concept of "Metaverse".

Chen Weilian thought, coming to this world, isn't it similar to being in a different universe from the previous life?It has some similarities with Metaverse, um, Meta Investment Company, the name is not bad.

After returning home at night, William Chen met Tom. He told William Chen that he had contacted a senior consulting company to investigate the matter of the "New York Observer". Tomorrow, the person in charge of his matter, Nelson, would contact William Chen. , to inform him of the progress of the investigation.

Regarding this matter, William Chen was not in a hurry.Because from the present point of view, Garrett is still focused on acquiring his own building No. 666, and probably has no idea of ​​acquiring that newspaper.

"It seems that you haven't made any progress with that Erica, William. Recently, I've been seeing you at home by yourself at night." Before Tom left, he suddenly teased William Chen.

However, what he said made William Chen suddenly realize that since Paris left New York, he seemed to have been living such a regular life. He really didn't know whether he should be proud of himself or sad?

In William Chen's sleep, there are always different enchanting figures of women, sometimes it is Paris, sometimes it is the faces of other women, the familiar but strange feeling turns into Ivanta's sweet smile , and the charm of the corner of the mouth, uh, isn't that Erica?When the woman with her head down raised her head again, William Chen saw the half-smile face of his wife in his previous life, and he immediately woke up.

He looked at the Vacheron Constantin Heritage watch in his hand, which showed that the time was six o'clock in the morning. This watch was left to William Chen by his predecessor's father, and the price exceeded 20 US dollars.It is said to have been a gift from his mother to his father, very memorable for both of them.

Feeling this thought, William Chen got up from the bed, threw the underwear that was soiled due to last night's dream into the trash can in the bathroom, and after taking a shower, he was ready to go for a morning run.

After finishing the morning class, William Chen made an appointment with someone from the consulting company that Tom helped him find.Nielsen worked for Deloitte Consulting. Deloitte Consulting was spun off from Deloitte in 2002, separated from Deloitte Accounting Firm, and became a separate company, focusing more on consulting business. Now it has become one of the top3 consulting companies in the world.

Through the other party, Chen William learned that the "New York Observer" was founded by banker and sculptor Arthur Carter in 1987. Although the current circulation of this newspaper is only more than 5 copies per issue, in New York, Especially the Manhattan area has an important position and is a must-read newspaper for celebrities.

Just like the TV series "Sex and the City", which has a wide audience in the United States, its original novel was first serialized in this newspaper.

Three years ago, in 2006, Arthur Carter's business was in trouble. Not only were losses increasing, but debts were also accumulating. Therefore, he intended to sell the "New York Observer" he founded. With the rapid development and decline of paper media, the operation of "New York Observer" became more and more difficult.

It is said that the annual loss of this newspaper was more than 200 million U.S. dollars at that time, which was the biggest loss in his industry, and as Arthur Carter grew older, his children had no interest in this newspaper, so he made up his mind Prepare to sell newspapers to recover losses.

So after months of see-saw negotiations, the investment company of Hollywood star Robert De Niro finally bought the newspaper for $2007 million in 800.

"It now appears that Robert De Niro's management of the "New York Observer" was a failure. What he cared about at first was only the influence of this newspaper. As a well-known movie star, he must have had the idea of ​​developing in the political circle at that time. Therefore, it is determined to acquire this influential newspaper in New York.

However, with the unsatisfactory results of his last election to the Senate, he could not afford the annual loss of more than 200 million US dollars for the newspaper.

So since last year, he began to reform the newspaper, reducing a lot of serious content, and began to position this newspaper as objective and fair, satirizing social reality with a humorous style of writing, making changes in the direction of entertainment, increasing The gossip news of many celebrities, which caused dissatisfaction among many "New York Observer" readers. "

Nielsen introduced the current situation of the newspaper to Chen William: "Since this year, although the subscriptions of the newspaper have not declined significantly, they have gradually lost many readers of the New York business class. What disappointed Robert De Niro most was the entertainment industry. The traffic brought by the modernized gossip news has not been converted into advertising revenue, but many traditional advertisers have gradually abandoned the newspaper.

Therefore, it is estimated that the loss of the "New York Observer" this year is likely to reach a new high, and the loss in the first half of the year alone has reached 150 million US dollars.What hit the newspaper the most was that Kaplan, the editor-in-chief who had been working in the newspaper for more than 10 years, resigned as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper two months ago because he was dissatisfied with Robert De Niro's mess. into turmoil. "

"So if I want to acquire this newspaper now, is it possible?" William Chen asked.

(End of this chapter)