Chapter 78

Around the Christmas holiday, which should have been a time for lovers or family to gather, Stark Tower in New York City was not peaceful at all. The accounting, tax, and legal departments were brightly lit, and all employees were still working overtime.

There were also people in charge and managers of industries under Stark's name in various places, who also brought company financial data and gathered in New York to respond to the earth-shattering changes in the group.

One by one, simplified reports and detailed financial reports were sent into the chairman's office on the top floor.

As the successor of Stark Industries, Tony Stark had been in this room for three days without leaving. His red eyes were driven into the bathroom to clean himself up. Because if he didn't wash, he would smell...

Fighting with him were Howard Stark's most trusted and long-term business partner, Obadiah Stane; and the Stark family's butler, Edwin Jarvis.

Both had families and other work, so it was impossible to hide in the chairman's office like Tony and not take a step out. They had just returned to the company from their respective homes to assist this young master.

Finally, the young master, who didn't know where the madness came from, was driven to take a bath. Organizing the messy environment in the office, Obadiah first said: "Did Tony take the wrong medicine? He couldn't be found on the day of the funeral, I thought he ran away like before.

"Even if he is persuaded back, he will have to be persuaded for a year or a half before he reluctantly agrees to inherit the group. I didn't expect him to be more energetic than us now. Did he really take the wrong medicine? Or was he replaced by someone..."

Edwin, who was organizing the messy environment in the office, said: "Young Master Tony just thought it through, isn't this very good. Although the deadline for paying estate taxes is nine months, it is actually very urgent. The sooner he enters the situation, the more leeway we have."

"That's true. But it's so urgent now, I'm worried whether he's going to do something irrational on impulse."

"Obadiah, what do you think I'm going to do that's irrational? Shut down all departments of Stark Industries?" Tony, who had simply washed, changed into clean clothes and walked out.

Obadiah didn't have any embarrassment of being exposed for speaking behind his back. He said bluntly: "Tony, you have to understand one thing, according to US law, no matter if you want to shut down Stark Industries or do anything, you have to pay off the estate tax first before you have complete legal power.

"If you can't think it through for a while and smash Stark Industries, and can't pay the estate tax. Then you won't achieve the wish of being able to start from scratch, but will have to start from debt."

"I do intend to do so. —" Tony's simple sentence made the two old ministers of the Stark family fearful. "—But it should be a bit different from what you think."

Feeling like he had just taken a roller coaster, Obadiah felt his heart was a bit weak. He endured the urge to faint and said: "Tony, you'd better explain in detail. Don't scare your old uncle to death."

Picking up a few handwritten drafts from the table, Tony gestured to the sofa with his eyes and said: "Obadiah, sit down. If you get sick now, it will be very troublesome for me. Jarvis, whiskey, please."

"Okay." Jarvis walked to the small bar and asked again: "Does Mr. Stane need it?"

"Yes, I want a glass too."

Tony sat on the sofa, staring at what he wrote, and said: "Jarvis, pour yourself a glass too. Then sit down together, I have some things to listen to your thoughts."

"Okay, young master." The old servant put three glasses on the silver tray, poured the wine, and put it on the coffee table together with the wine bottle.

Tony then began to say: "The situation of Stark Industries, I believe you know better than me. Although we have shareholders, we are not listed, and we do not circulate in the primary or secondary market. I think this is the biggest reason why those ghosts on Wall Street are staring at us."

Obadiah said: "Yes, I have persuaded Howard about this. Although we have the support of the military, in the United States, wanting to monopolize a business won't have a good end."

"Stop, stop, stop, I have plans for this." Interrupting his old uncle's unfinished words. Tony knew that if he let him nag, he might not finish talking for three days and three nights.

Tony said: "What I want to say is the point is, fortunately, we didn't enter the stock market, so our equity structure is relatively simple. Stark Industries should actually be called Stark Group, and you also own a considerable amount of shares in some companies.

"But there are also two foundations in it, one is the New York City Veterans Foundation, and the other is the Stark Education and Culture Promotion Foundation. What are these two foundations doing?

"In many companies, these two foundations occupy a considerable proportion of shares. The latter is almost all over the companies under the group, and the former is those companies with particularly good financial reports, almost all of which have their traces."

Edwin Jarvis replied: "Young master, the Stark Education and Culture Promotion Foundation is the method old master learned from the Jews to avoid huge estate taxes.

"You have always been the registered person in charge of this foundation. However, there are certain restrictions on transferring property every year. Although old master has been doing it, there is still a large amount of property registered in his own name."

"Then what is the New York City Veterans Foundation? What does it have to do with the Veterans Association?"

The latter is an official US organization, but the former is a white glove of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Jarvis couldn't say this part clearly because it belonged to confidential matters.

He thought about it and could only say: "The Veterans Foundation is different from the Veterans Association. This is a private organization. The person in charge has always been Ms. Peggy Carter, who is regarded as Captain America's widow. It's just that she is also looking for a successor recently and intends to retire."

"Ah, it's old aunt." Tony shuddered, another woman who couldn't be provoked.

But thinking about the old guy's friendship with those people, it wouldn't be surprising what he would do. Even there might be the shadow of the military behind it, so Tony didn't intend to pursue this part of the equity and get their support.

Tony said: "Then according to the results of working overtime these past few days, the audited amount, I still have to contribute 3.4 billion to the US government, not counting the change. This amount is not wrong, right. It's several times more than all the liquid funds of the entire group combined."

Obadiah had a gloating mood and said: "This is because we don't need to disclose financial reports, so the outside world is not sure about the situation of Stark Industries. Otherwise, according to what those newspapers said, the amount of estate tax you have to pay is an astronomical figure of hundreds of billions."