According to the etiquette of America at this time—or more precisely, the etiquette of the South, as Westerners didn't bother with such things—Wayne found it somewhat inconvenient to directly visit the daughter of the Tax Officer at his home.
So, in the morning, he went to the Cathedral to make his presence known (the monks still seemed friendly towards him, and even better, Tiriel was not around), and then he visited Mr. Russell, his financial backer at the office (to report that the Agents from the Second Office had already started work).
In the afternoon, he went to the City Hall, beginning his roundabout approach with Tax Officer Quinn.
Local tax officers were busier than America Federation tax officers at this time, after all, one of the fundamental reasons America Federation was initially established was that people wanted to refuse the compulsory taxes imposed by the Windsor colonizers.
Therefore, learning from experience, at the Federal level, there were only tariffs and specific consumption taxes on a few categories of goods like tobacco and alcohol.
However, there were many different taxes and fees to be collected locally, such as public facility construction fees in urban areas, which were not nominally called "taxes" and theoretically not "compulsory," but were considered expenses one "had to bear to integrate into the local community."
A slight improvement from back then was that people who didn't want to pay taxes could now freely leave and go to another state—it seemed that having a choice would prevent everyone from taking up arms simultaneously.
However, similar issues would still arise, just in a different form; when "violent tax resistance" no longer had popular support, "reasonable tax avoidance" became a new field of study.
To give a somewhat exaggerated example, the alcohol production tax at this time was collected based on the "number" of stills; a giant still in a factory with such a large output had the same tax amount as a common still used for home brewing in the countryside, which is why barreled wine gradually became popular in America, as transporting it from afar was more cost-effective than brewing it oneself.
When Wayne arrived, Tax Officer Quinn had just finished scolding a group of clerks; after everyone else left, he was sitting alone at his desk, nursing a headache.
Seeing Wayne appear at the office door, he waved, signaling Wayne to enter, and at the same time walked towards the low cabinet to pour a drink, "Whiskey?"
Wayne nodded and said thank you, then followed Tax Officer Quinn to the soft sofa for guests, and began to make small talk: "I was just passing by, so I thought I'd drop in and visit you. It seems being a Tax Officer is indeed not an easy job; it truly requires experienced and professional individuals like yourself to handle it."
Because the two had chatted at the Mayor's ball, and Wayne had the respect of Old Man Bask of the Beaton Family and the Mayor that night, Tax Officer Quinn's attitude towards Wayne was quite cordial.
Previously, when Wayne was handling the relevant procedures for his workshop and restaurant, he had helped him, so at this point, there was no need for excessive formality; both were striving towards a "personal friendship."
Tax Officer Quinn was clearly taking a break from his busy schedule to change his mood; he shifted into a more comfortable sitting position on the sofa, one hand rubbing his temple:
"Although commercial prosperity is a good thing, businessmen nowadays are not as respectful of the law as the manor lords of the past. There are more and more problematic tax returns, and it gives me a headache just looking at them."
That's true. Large estate owners and wealthy individuals often belonged to the type with "deep roots" in the local area; they either had professional lawyers or accounting teams, or they would find ways to get politicians to change laws, so there was no need to commit fraud to evade taxes.
Wayne was still thinking of finding an opportunity to dine at Tax Officer Quinn's house that evening, so he went along with the topic and chatted idly, "With you in charge of oversight, I imagine they certainly won't have any chance to evade taxes."
"That's not necessarily true. Some problems are hidden quite deeply, and even I might not discover them in time."
As Tax Officer Quinn spoke, he reached for his desk and picked up two of the tax returns, "Look at these two tax returns. Can you tell which one has a problem?"
Wayne took the two papers into his hands, quickly scanned the forms on them, and then handed one of them back, "It should be this one, right?"
Tax Officer Quinn glanced at it, and then his eyes widened slightly, "How did you figure that out? And so quickly?!"
Well...
Because these two tax returns weren't even in the "same stack"... I arrived when you were scolding someone, and it was obvious that the problematic one would be singled out and shown to the clerks.
But he certainly couldn't say that; once a trick is exposed, the magic loses its appeal.
Wayne pondered for a moment and quickly came up with an excuse: "I have some talent in mathematics. Previously, because I developed some minor academic achievements, Professor Maisel at the 'Academy' even applied for a Federal Society commendation and an Academy scholarship for me. Therefore, although I don't understand taxation, I can identify some mathematical problems."
Tax Officer Quinn's interest was indeed piqued, and the two tax returns were laid side by side on the coffee table: "Tell me specifically, how exactly did you figure it out?"
Wayne had already "shot the arrow" first, and the theatrical effect had been achieved; next, it was time to "draw the target."
He carefully examined both tax returns twice, trying his best to find the differences between them:
"Based on my experience with mathematics since childhood, in normal statistical reports, numbers starting with '1' should appear most frequently, with the highest proportion possibly reaching about one-third of the total. The numbers filled in this tax return clearly do not conform to this pattern; there are too few numbers starting with '1', which suggests they might have been tampered with."
This rule was not something Wayne made up; it is mathematically known as "Benford's Law," and its content is precisely what Wayne described. It is indeed widely used in modern society to detect fraud in various types of data.
However, in practical application, this law actually has a minimum requirement for "sample size"; the more data there is, the closer the fit will be. With only a few numbers on a tax return, exceptions can easily occur, so it can only be used for preliminary screening and is not considered "hard evidence."
But fortunately, it is indeed an objectively existing rule. When Tax Officer Quinn first understood it, he was a bit skeptical. He stood up, went to the bookshelf next to his desk, pulled out a large volume, opened it to two pages full of numbers, and began to examine them carefully.
Wayne, on the other hand, was not afraid of him bringing out a large amount of numbers to test; he just calmly sipped his wine and waited.
So, after a short wait, Tax Officer Quinn looked up, slightly surprised, "Although the proportion didn't reach one-third, numbers starting with 1 are indeed the most frequent..."
Wayne nodded, pointing towards the bookshelf, "If you're still unsure, you can find someone to help confirm. Theoretically, if I pick any bookshelf, and you have someone flip through all the books on it, the sum of page numbers starting with 1 will definitely be the most. I don't know the principle behind it, but it seems to always be the case."
Tax Officer Quinn's upper body had now involuntarily leaned closer to Wayne, "Have you discovered any other rules? Like this one, where you don't even need to understand basic tax law to initially determine if a tax return is fraudulent."
Wayne deliberately played coy: "There are other methods too... but comparatively, they might be a bit more complex."
Tax Officer Quinn's thirst for knowledge seemed quite strong at this moment; he picked up the wine bottle and refilled Wayne's glass generously, "Tell me, I'm very interested in them."
Heh, it looks like dinner tonight is a sure thing.
