Tax evasion will be investigated, and the tax investigation in this era adopts a very simple method. At the end of each month, the city hall will spend a month organizing accounting, and will check all the tax returns of the previous month, and check whether the tax amount has fluctuated in recent months, whether there are discrepancies in the name of the payment, etc. If the fluctuation is large and there is a problem with the payment, a special city hall civil servant will visit to check the account, or calculate the production cost by checking the gas meter, etc.
Although it sounds complicated, in fact, only detective agencies and other tax-paying units that are not convenient for accurate business verification need to pay special attention. There are indeed some loopholes that can evade taxes, but Xia De has no such idea. After all, he is doing a legitimate business.
It took half an hour to complete the tax filing process at the tax department next to Blackstone Security Company. This time, Xia De declared the taxes for the last two months and paid a heavy tax of 7 pounds and 14 shillings.
This is a considerable expense. If Xia De can earn this much every month, his annual tax payment can barely reach three figures, which is higher than the income level of most people in this city.
It seems that the job of detective is still very promising.
"Where did you buy these maltose?"
The Blackstone Security Company is next to the Taxation Bureau in the North District. Xiade had come to see Iluna before, so it was not his first visit. However, the cat on the first floor of the security company was still very enthusiastic towards Xiade, but in order to prevent the cat at home from being unhappy, Xiade did not hug it this time.
Iluna met Shade in the lounge on the first floor of the security company. At that time, Shade had a magazine under his left arm and a metal box filled with yellow gelatinous maltose in his right hand. The candy was only at the bottom of the box, and there wasn't much in it. The box had no lid, and the corners were a little rusty. There were two short wooden sticks thicker than chopsticks stuck in it.
"Besides, aren't you going to take care of the commission? You look like you've been wandering around all morning."
As she spoke, Iluna looked at Shade suspiciously.
"I got the magazine from the haunted house. As for the candies, if you pay a certain amount of tax, you will get some gifts. These include but are not limited to two newspapers from this morning, a box of maltose, three raw eggs, a wooden pen holder, a bookmark with the City Hall stamp, and a brass whistle. Oh, the last one is gone, otherwise I would have taken the whistle. It should be good for entertaining cats."
Shad replied.
These gifts are meant to encourage tax payment. If you pay more than five pounds on the spot, you can choose any one. The value of the gifts is not equal. For example, after Shade finishes eating the candy in his hand, the tin box can also be used as a pen holder. So he just picked up a box of candy at random, and when he saw that Iluna was interested, he stuffed it into her hand.
"Shad, do you think I'm still a child?"
The seventeen-year-old girl said with a smile, taking the candy and putting it on the table beside her, looking very happy.
"What about magazines? Why are you interested in a magazine about women's clothing? It's also a reward for filing taxes?"
As she said this, she was about to take the magazine that Xia De had clipped in the box. Xia De subconsciously wanted to hand it to her, but immediately thought of what was inside.
"No!"
He raised his voice slightly:
"Here are... books I borrowed from the Black Raven Library! Yes, you can't show them to anyone else."
Iluna nodded, but she was a little surprised why Shad reacted so strongly.
Afterwards, Shad briefly explained his schedule for this morning and told Iluna the two things he had resolved.
Iluna didn't feel any regrets about the young ghost who died, as this kind of thing was not uncommon. And the peeping incident later also gave Iluna a headache:
"We can't control the affairs of ordinary people, but since the other party has asked us to do it, I think the captain will find a way to solve it. Really, money is really hard to make."
"What methods will your captain use?"
"It's hard to say. It depends on whether the other party is obedient."
So Xia De stopped asking because the rest of the matter had nothing to do with him.
There were three commissions given by Iluna, so there was only the last one left, which was the merchant selling spices in the north of the city.
The other party did not have a fixed shop, but like the small vendors in St. Teresa's Square, he hung out in a square somewhere in the northern district of Tobesk.
The first two commissions were not big deals, so Xia De regarded the third one as an ordinary event as well, just as a way to relax today.
After saying goodbye to Iluna, I took a leisurely carriage to my destination. On the way, I chatted with the coachman about the recent prices. Midsummer was about to end, and the price of cheap fruits such as apples remained stable, so children from ordinary families could occasionally eat them.
Tobysk Hymn Square is one of the more prosperous squares in the northern part of the city. It is said that the name came from the fact that in the early days of the city, a hymn was composed here to commemorate a bishop of the Peace Church, but for some reason it was not named after the bishop.
The north of Tobesk is the lower city in the usual sense. Unlike St. Teresa Square, which is mainly occupied by residents, the Anthem Square is the largest trading center in the north of the city. The square is well connected. Around the square are the Three Cats Inn, Hunter's Bookstore, the "Bingxiao" herbal shop, Mrs. Shulan's clothing store, etc. There is even a blacksmith shop with a sign "Upper Class" that helps people repair pots and sharpen kitchen knives and scissors. As for the square, there are vendors selling various groceries, fruits, vegetables and meat, gang loan sharks, and various performers.
The people in the villages and towns around Tobesk, such as the village where Mr. Kopps, who provided corpse materials to the ring wizards, lived, would gather around the Anthem Square in the north of the city after entering the city.
The upper class is the upper class. The poor and the villagers in the countryside exist in the same space as them, but they definitely do not live the same life.
Although it is in the lower city, the Anthem Square is more lively than the city center. There are no noble ladies or fashionable gentlemen here, only people wearing patched clothes walking around.
Women wearing headscarves and aprons, carrying baskets, compare the goods they want to choose; children who seem to have not washed their faces for a long time are playing barefoot in the streets, and when they meet strangers, they will dodge out of fear; rough men in black shoes, holding bottles of wine, complain to their companions about their unhappy lives; beggars by the wall, as if they have nothing to do with the surrounding noise and the clanging sounds of the blacksmith shop, curl up on the straw mat, and will only leave when the owner of the house starts cursing.
This was the first time for a foreigner to come here, and he was overwhelmed by the variety of sights. Although the streets and squares were dilapidated, they were full of vitality. Compared with the people living in Saint Teresa Square, the people living here seemed to be in a different world.
"I didn't know there was such a place in Tobesk."
The stranger stared with wide eyes, standing at the edge of the square and turning his head to look at everything around him. The air was filled with the smell of low-quality tobacco, fermenting food, and rotting grass, and various sounds rushed into his ears, forming a complex background noise.
He had only seen this place before on the map left by Detective Sparrow. That map was filled with dense information and even marked how to find prostitutes, loan sharks and the entrance to an underground casino in the area.
"If I want to see more of this world, I should visit places like this more often."
The shock brought by this scene at this moment was no less than the shock Xia De felt when he saw the street scenes in a foreign country for the first time.
The life ring in the soul slowly rotates, and the brass-colored enlightenment elements are enriching. This scene makes the strangers who are still unfamiliar with this world have more insights into civilization.
Compared to the people in this world, outsiders have a unique advantage in thinking about and understanding civilization. However, this advantage is not the application of literature and fairy tales like Dorothy and Princess Leia, but more like Old John's understanding of civilization as a whole.