I See through Everything

While the Hailufeng Company was busy dealing with matters in its sales department...

Over at the tax bureau in Shanmei District.

Ye Meijing brought a few colleagues to Section Chief Li’s office.

Seeing Ye Meijing arrive, Li Yunbo quickly and warmly welcomed them in his office.

As he boiled water and got out tea leaves, he said with a smile, "Regarding Manager Ye’s visit, General Manager Jiang already called me last night. We wholeheartedly welcome and support Hailufeng Company’s decision to prepay their taxes for the first half of the year."

"You’re too kind, Section Chief Li," Ye Meijing said with a smile and a nod.

After they had been talking in Li Yunbo’s office for about ten minutes, several leaders from the tax bureau also came over to greet them. Everyone was beaming as if it were the New Year.

The reason for this was that the local government’s finances had been in dire straits for the past few years. They were in urgent need of new revenue streams to stay afloat. Without new income, development was out of the question; even maintaining the status quo would be difficult.

To put it in perspective, Shanmei City’s fiscal revenue for 2024 was only about 7.2 billion yuan. This amount was nowhere near enough to cover the normal expenses of its various local systems. It was only thanks to 25.2 billion yuan in transfer payments from the higher government that the city could project an image of thriving vitality.

However, these transfer payments from above were not unlimited, nor were they a long-term solution.

Anyone with ambition would do everything they could to attract investment, develop various industries, and gradually wean the city off the label of relying on transfer payments. Only then could they truly advance.

Now, the sudden rise of the Hailufeng Company had given the Shanmei City officials a glimmer of hope. As a result, the city was already holding special discussions to provide Hailufeng Company with comprehensive support and protection.

For example, the Magong Town police station recently received a dozen new officers and began conducting regular patrols specifically in areas like the Salt Town Farm and the Nanhu Experimental Zone.

Now, if anyone dared to lurk suspiciously around the Salt Town Farm, they would be "invited for tea" in a matter of minutes.

If it weren’t for Hailufeng Company’s excellent financial health, and the fact that Shanmei had no local banks, the city would have probably tried to stuff them with a few hundred million in loans to see if they could accelerate the company’s growth.

After all, with Xinli International’s electronics sector shrinking year by year, the Dechang Electronics Factory half-dead, and no other company able to take up the mantle of a leading enterprise, the fortuitously emergent Hailufeng Company had become the city’s new hope.

This was the advantage of being in a small place.

If Hailufeng Company were in the Pearl River Delta Region, its early-stage annual revenue of several billion yuan would be considered quite ordinary among the cities there. It would only have a chance of becoming a star enterprise much later in its development.

This was the very principle of "better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix."

As long as Hailufeng Company maintained this growth trajectory and Jiang Miao himself didn’t make any critical missteps, the local authorities would protect Hailufeng Company at all costs.

...

For instance, just last night, Jiang Miao had called Li Yunbo to inform him that Hailufeng Company wanted to prepay its taxes for the first half of the year. This would free up the net profit from that period for investment in another company.

This matter immediately sent a shockwave through the entire leadership of the tax bureau.

That very night, Section Chief Li quickly notified the bureau’s leaders. The leadership team then held a small, late-night meeting to discuss how to properly handle the tax processing this time.

After all, as the local tax authority, they were all too familiar with Hailufeng Company’s revenue situation this year.

Of course, aside from arranging the tax audit, they also prepared a host of preferential policies for Hailufeng Company.

These included tax reductions for high-tech enterprises, tax exemptions for primary agricultural products, and more.

Soon, under Li Yunbo’s guidance, Ye Meijing and her colleagues were led to a special office. Here, there was no need to queue or take a number; they could directly handle all tax matters. It was somewhat like a bank’s VIP lounge.

This was a special privilege reserved for many large corporations.

Five tax auditors, Li Yunbo, another deputy section chief, and a division head—eight people in total—provided tax services for Hailufeng Company, meticulously reviewing the financial documents Ye Meijing had brought.

"Zhang Ke, Hailufeng Company invested 93.71 million yuan in R&D in the first half of the year. Exempt this entire portion..."

"No problem..."

"The depreciation for fixed asset investments in the first half of the year... Xiaowang, calculate that as quickly as possible..."

"Okay..."

"Hualing, you deduct the expenses for employee salaries and such..."

"Right!"

With Section Chief Li and the others working overtime, it took them just over three hours to finally complete Hailufeng Company’s tax audit for the first half of the year before the lunch break. They even triple-checked everything carefully.

After deducting all eligible exemptions, the remaining gross profit was 536,242,517 yuan. This portion was subject to a 35% personal income tax.

Therefore, Hailufeng Company’s total tax liability for the first half of the year was 187,684,880.95 yuan.

After deducting the taxes, the remaining 350 million yuan could all be transferred to Jiang Miao’s personal account.

Ye Meijing didn’t hesitate. In fact, the company’s finance department had already calculated this tax amount three times before she came to the tax bureau to make the payment.

After confirming there were no errors, she paid the tax on behalf of the company.

Seeing the system on the computer screen show that the tax payment had been fully processed, Li Yunbo smiled and shook hands with Ye Meijing and her colleagues one by one. "Thank you to Hailufeng Company and General Manager Jiang for your support of our tax work."

"Manager Ye, what has General Manager Jiang been up to recently?" one of the leaders from the tax bureau asked, adjusting his glasses.