I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

The next day, Zhang Menglong hurried to Baodao Province, and in his Silicon Moonlight factory, most of the employees had already taken their holidays, but there was still a small number of people and leaders who volunteered to stay and continue working.

"Xu Huan, it seems your prestige in the company isn't bad!" Zhang Menglong said with a smile; ever since they had walked through the door, the staff, after calling out 'Director Zhang', would always call out 'Assistant Xu'.

"That's all thanks to Director Zhang's high regard," Xu Huan replied, "If it weren't for Director Zhang prizing me, I wouldn't have such a grand stage."

"That's also because you have the capability," Zhang Menglong arrived at his own office, which was almost never visited by anyone, but was cleaned every single day and kept spotless.

"What exactly is the situation with this tax matter? Tell me about it."

"It's a long story," Xu Huan said, "I was still a student at that time, and I heard that back then, Silicon Moonlight was still a startup company. Its scale and output value were far from comparable to what they are now, and making a profit from those small orders was incredibly difficult—even paying the employees' salaries was fairly hard."

"As you know, the corporate tax rate isn't low; a large portion of our annual profits is used to pay taxes. So, at that time, the chairman started to look into ways to deal with the tax issue."

"Was this tax evasion scheme his idea?" Zhang Menglong felt that the previous chairman should not have been the kind to cut corners. Not to mention other aspects, at the very least, he didn't choose to be a traitor under the threats from Western suppliers, his stance was entirely correct. Even if he had his faults, they couldn't have been too serious.

"Strictly speaking, it's not really tax evasion or avoidance as such," Xu Huan explained, "I checked the company's accounts before you took over, and five years ago, they really were just legitimate tax avoidance methods!"

Legal tax avoidance is straightforward; it involves using legally allowed means to reduce one's tax rate or taxable items. Even now, many companies are using this method; some businesses can pay more than 90% less in taxes through legal tax avoidance scheming!

Although this method may not be entirely aboveboard, it is still an operation within the bounds permitted by law. Even if the tax authorities discover it, they cannot find any loopholes.

"But five years ago, Baodao Province went through a tax reform that closed off many loopholes, and the tax avoidance methods our company had used before all became prohibited."

"Because Silicon Moonlight pays an extraordinarily high amount of taxes each year, even though we underpaid a large portion, the relation between the tax authorities and the chairman was quite good. Over the years, they turned a blind eye, so we never had a problem before!"

"So this time, because of an anonymous report, the tax authorities had no choice but to take action, and that's why they came to trouble us?" Zhang Menglong quickly understood the crux of the issue.

"That's right, and according to feedback from the tax authorities, it was an internal employee who made an anonymous report. This blows matters up even more. I suspect there's someone manipulating the situation behind the scenes!"

"Oh? How do you know?"

"Look at this!" Xu Huan opened several social media platforms where various troll posts had already caused an uproar on some websites.

Assorted posts slandering Zhang Menglong were rampant: from calling him a 'world's richest man avoiding taxes', to 'unscrupulous businessman', to 'caring only about profits and not fulfilling obligations'.

"Wow, they are all freshly created accounts," Zhang Menglong laughed, "This is clearly the work of a paid internet army!"

"It's definitely a paid internet army, but once they start setting the tone, it will blow up sooner or later."

"It hasn't hit the trending searches yet!" Zhang Menglong glanced at Weibo and did not see even a hint of it on the hot search list!

"Director Zhang," Xu Huan said with a wry smile, "It's almost as if you're disappointed it hasn't hit the hot searches. This does no good for your reputation, and it's a significant blow to Silicon Moonlight. Even if we produce chips in the future, if this credit issue isn't resolved, I'm afraid not many merchants will be willing to buy from us, especially since our products haven't been tested by the market and don't carry any persuasive power." Continue your journey with My Virtual Library Empire

"Xu Huan, how many tax loopholes do we have in the company currently?"

"The amount is enormous," said Xu Huan, "over the past five years, the total tax we've underpaid amounts to more than 30 billion Huaxia currency!"

"That much?" Zhang Menglong was also startled, he had no background in finance and accounting, and was completely clueless, "Is paying taxes always this intense?"

"Mr. Zhang, as the saying goes, 'with great power comes great responsibility'. The more profitable the enterprise, the more taxes it naturally pays," explained Hong Yi, "Take Mr. Ma Yun's Alibaba, for instance. Their annual revenue is around 150 billion Huaxia currency, and just the taxes they pay exceed 50 billion Huaxia currency!"

"Tsk tsk..."

"Silicon Moonlight's average total revenue for these years is also roughly around 30 billion. The tax system in Baodao Province doesn't differ much from other regions, so the total estimated taxes would also be around 50 billion. It's not surprising that underpayment by 30 billion in taxes went unnoticed."

"This looks like no small matter!"

"Yes, Mr. Zhang," said Xu Huan, "If this gets blown up even further, it will eventually become public knowledge. I think it's best if you use the resources at your disposal to suppress this matter until we've made up for the unpaid taxes. Then we wouldn't have to worry about idle gossip."

"No need," Zhang Menglong shook his head, "I think some things are better blown out of proportion!"

"Mr. Zhang, you..." Xu Huan was puzzled; he had no idea what Zhang Menglong was thinking. How could making a big fuss benefit them?

"Hong Yi," commanded Zhang Menglong, "help me arrange to use all the channels under my name to hype this up as much as possible, the bigger the better, ideally the whole world should know about it!"

"Yes, Mr. Zhang." Though Hong Yi also didn't understand what Zhang Menglong was up to, she followed his instructions.@@novelbin@@

In Huaxia, traffic is basically controlled by those large internet companies, and Weibo remains the unchanged battlefield for the onlooking masses.

With the workings of the staff, the first post immediately turned a glaring red, even adding an "explosive" symbol to it.

"Silicon Moonlight evades 30 billion in Huaxia currency over five years!"

A brief headline, but the staggering number was incredibly eye-catching. 30 billion, for 99 percent of people in this world, was certainly an astronomical sum.

"Silicon Moonlight? Isn't that Mr. Zhang's company?"

"Tax evasion? Mr. Zhang's company evaded taxes? My God, more than 30 billion!"

"Wait, just over 30 billion? I feel like this is an insult to Mr. Zhang. Add another zero and I might believe it a bit more!"

"Hahaha, Mr. Zhang's fireworks alone cost several billions, are you telling me he evaded 30 billion in taxes over five years? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Let me tell you a joke, Zhang Menglong evaded taxes, and it was 30 billion!"

...

"What... what's going on?"

The manipulators behind the scenes, who were originally gleeful about the issue's rising heat, were suddenly dumbfounded. What's with these Huaxia people? Instead of outrage over such a serious issue, people not only didn't believe it, but the whole thing turned into a joke?