"Mr. Ray!" Li Ming, who had been sitting behind him and had not made a sound, suddenly shouted.

"Well, what's the matter?" Lei Weidong, who was standing in front of the glass cubicle, turned around and asked suspiciously.

Li Ming sat on the chair, pondered for a moment and said, "Mr. Lei, you'd better be prepared, you may not get a lot of Apple shares." ”

"Oh?" Lei Weidong turned around curiously, looked at Li Ming and asked, "Why do you say that?" ”

"Because U.S. law requires U.S. domestic companies with 25% or more foreign ownership to file an annual disclosure statement with the IRS disclosing financial transactions with foreign entities."

Li Ming shrugged his shoulders and said with a meaningful expression: "You just said that you are very optimistic about Apple and their development, and with what I know about Jobs in the past few days, he would rather not have the 800,000 than be on the list of the tax department." ”

Li Ming didn't say anything further, and Lei Weidong also knew this. If there is anything that is the most powerful department in the United States, it is not the CIA, the FBI, but the tax department.

The United States is a veritable million, tax country, much more than the taxes of the Celestial Empire, otherwise why are there so many American lawyers.

The main task of a lawyer in the United States is not to fight a lawsuit, but to help people pay taxes, and tax evasion is of course tax evasion within the scope of the law.

If you pay more, you can return it, but if you pay less, it will be troublesome. Not to mention the taxes that even Americans would be dazzled by, the personal income tax is charged according to income tiers, with the lowest federal tax rate being 10 percent of income and the highest being 35 percent.

In American movies, the police often say to the suspect, 'You have the right to be silent,' but when it comes to paying taxes, if you evade taxes, you don't have the right to be silent.

In addition, the IRS can freeze assets without going to court, which is also a great privilege. Regardless of the source of income, even if it is illegal, it must be taxed.

There is a famous saying in the United States, "Only death and paying taxes are eternal in this world", but in private, people prefer to talk about - no one should mess with the Internal Revenue Service - no one in the United States is afraid of the government or the president, but when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service, many people will grit their teeth with hatred.

Every year on April 15, the whole country mourns, the deadline for paying taxes under U.S. federal law, and thousands of Americans deal with what has been described as "the most feared department in the country": the Internal Revenue Service, commonly known as the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS.

The inspectors who come to collect taxes from all parts of the IRS are not only tall and proficient in their professions, but also carry guns and other weapons and equipment with them, and their deterrent power even exceeds that of the CIA and the Department of Defense, which was widely recognized by Americans as early as the 30s of the last century.

The most famous gang leader in the United States at that time was Al? Capone, he killed his two bosses, became the godfather of the gang, and his evil deeds were in the newspapers every day, but the government, the FBI, and the police didn't take him because there was no evidence.

It wasn't until the IRS that a group of seemingly weak accountants were invited by federal agents to go out and turn around and kill the unblinking Al-Al through the "non-filing of taxes", a necessary crime of murder and home travel. Capone was brought to justice, and his criminal syndicate was wiped out.

Despite the IRS's deterrent power, in fact. Tax evasion and reasonable tax avoidance have become a common phenomenon in the United States, and since the beginning of the new century, the amount of tax evasion has even exceeded $150 billion a year, and these people include both high-ranking government officials and ordinary people.

If the tax bureau can't find out, then everything is easy to say, if the tax bureau catches the handle, hehe, there was once a millionaire who was directly punished for bankruptcy because he underpaid $3,000 in taxes. And not only went bankrupt, but also went to federal prison for tax evasion.

Next door to the lounge, Jobs and others were discussing Lei Weidong's proposal fiercely.

Jobs and others have no objection to whether to accept Lei Weidong's investment, and now Apple is too poor, if it weren't for Mike Macura to invest $92,000 and help Jobs get a $250,000 loan. Apple is expected to go out of business now.

Lei Weidong's $800,000 can be said to be a send-off, with this money, Jobs can complete Apple-2 as soon as possible, which is Apple's trump card product. For Apple-2, Apple is full of confidence.

I agree with Mr. Harry Potter's stake, but 55 per cent is too much, I think 35 per cent at most. That is, I, Jobs, and Woltz each gave 11 percent, and Holt took 2 percent. Mike Macura proposed:

"I agree with Mike Makulla's proposal, but there's one thing you don't forget. Companies with 25% or more foreign ownership are required to file an annual disclosure statement with the IRS, which will be known to the IRS about many of the circumstances of our company, which is not good for our corporate tax side. Questions were raised.

"Yes, giving 35% of the shares to Harry Potter is not good for my company's tax aspects, but giving only 24.9% of the shares to Harry Potter will definitely not agree.

If the negotiation fails, it will be very bad for our company, we need the 800,000 investment now!, and the other party may not agree to 35% of the shares, you must know that Harry Potter asked for 55% of the shares. Mike Macura explains;

The discussion was intense, and it was best for everyone to look at Jobs, although Jobs shares are the same as Wads and Mike Macula, but it is undeniable that Jobs is the soul of Apple.

Seeing everyone see themselves, Jobs was also very embarrassed.

To be honest, although Jobs thinks that what Mike Makula said is very reasonable, since Lei Weidong comes to invest, he will definitely ask for more shares, but as the founder of Apple, Jobs hopes to be in charge of the company.

Unfortunately, this is the reality, because of the lack of money, Jobs had to divide the company's shares. Now I only have 30% of the shares. After that, their shares can only become smaller and smaller.

This is also the sadness of entrepreneurs, in the world's well-known enterprises, entrepreneurs have very little shares, after all, in Western society is capital king.

Otherwise, there will be no Class A, Class B or even Class C stocks in the United States in the future. Isn't it the entrepreneur who founded it to protect his company?

In the United States, after the 90s, the stocks of large companies are divided into several categories, class A is ordinary tradable shares, class B and class C are stocks that have a decisive equity in the board of directors, one share of B shares may be equivalent to three to five A shares, and one share of class C may be equivalent to several B shares.

In this way, the founder can control the board of directors of the company with only a small number of C or B shares. Like Google Inc. is like that. It's a pity that there is no such stock classification now, otherwise Jobs would not have been kicked out of Apple in the future.

"I would like to state here that the shares given to Lei Weidong cannot exceed 24.9% of the shares at most, and the other party can only enjoy dividends and equity. Cannot participate in board resolutions. Jobs thought about it and said, "At most, we promise not to dilute his shares in the future!" ”

"Why give each other so few shares! The other party will definitely not agree! And we need this money! Mike Macura asked, "Steve, if you're worried about the shares, it's okay to take more from my shares!" ”

"It's not about shares!" Jobs shook his head and said: "Don't forget what kind of company we are, we are a high-tech computer company, and our target customers are those, what customers use the most computers." ”

"This!"

Jobs's words made everyone fall into deep thought, and even Mike Macura bowed his head and remained silent.

If you are a layman, you may say that the most used are of course those retail investors, but everyone here knows that a computer company wants to become bigger, and it is not possible to do much in the United States just by relying on retail business.

After all, computers are still a luxury in the eyes of many people, if it is ten or twenty years later, computers become the standard configuration of ordinary families, it may be okay, but now it is absolutely not, only to get the projects procured by large enterprises, especially the United States, is Apple's way of survival.

Why Lenovo in the mainland can become the first computer brand in China in the 21st century is not because Lenovo has obtained a license for government procurement, and the huge government procurement has pushed it to the No1 position in a few years.

Although the U.S. government is not as large as the mainland, the state government, the federal government, and its subordinate agencies together are definitely a huge number.

And what is the attitude of the U.S. government towards foreign-owned companies, as long as Americans know, except for the legal accident that companies with 25% or more foreign ownership must submit a disclosure statement to the IRS every year,

In many industries, the U.S. government has imposed restrictions on foreign investment.

For example, in the transportation industry, the U.S. government has made it clear that foreign ownership cannot exceed 25 percent of the voting rights, foreign investors cannot sit on the board of directors of U.S. airlines at more than one-third, foreign investment in U.S.-flagged nearshore trade fleets cannot exceed 25 percent, and ships with more than 25 percent foreign investment are not allowed to transport passengers or cargo between U.S. ports.

In addition to the transportation industry, there are restrictions in many industries, such as telecommunications and banking, and the foreign shareholding limit is 25%.

It can be said that 25% of the shares are a hurdle in the eyes of the US government, once this share is exceeded, although the people will not say anything, they will definitely be treated differently in government procurement activities, and once they are treated differently, it will definitely be a disaster for a small company like Apple.

"What if Harry Potter doesn't agree, will we give up the 800,000 investment!" Jobs' good buddy Wads asked.

"Like I said, if Harry Potter agrees to 24.9% of the shares, we can make guarantees in terms of share dilution and so on, if Harry Potter does not agree, then we can only give up the 800,000, for the future development of the company, we must not have a little luck."

"I'm a little unwilling!" I don't know who muttered quietly.

"What's unwilling!" Jobs looked at everyone's somewhat deflated appearance and yelled.

"Originally, we didn't think about another 800,000 investment of good things, without this 800,000 companies will not die, at most more difficult, now the company's top priority is to complete the apple-2, to participate in the first computer exhibition in the United States held in April, as long as the apple-2 can be successful at the exhibition, not to mention 800,000 US dollars, even 8 million US dollars of investment is also readily available."

"Yes!" There was a chorus of approval in the room, full of confidence in Apple-2.

In the lounge, Lei Weidong was chatting with Uncle Wu to pass the time. Jobs and the others pushed open the door and walked in.