Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

Ted said, "Let's talk about taxes. To be on the safe side, you should register a new company first."

Chen Yiran first talked about the situation of another company.

"Your business deals with parallel import cars. If the intellectual property rights for the editor are held by that company, that's fine, but the two businesses are quite different. If something goes wrong or the car business goes out of business someday, it will be quite troublesome. We still recommend setting up a separate one."

"I know, I'd also like you to help me with this, please help me register a new one."

"Yes, registering a new company has many advantages, namely, it will save a lot of taxes, a very, very large amount."

This was Chen Yiran's blind spot, and he looked at TED with a puzzled expression.

Ted smiled and said, "In the eyes of the IRS, a Single-Member LLC is a penetrating entity. Simply put, the company doesn't pay taxes; all income goes directly to you as an individual. Normally, if your income is classified as self-employment income, in addition to federal income tax, you also have to pay a 15.3% self-employment tax."

"I know that. It's equivalent to paying personal income tax, or what's called self-employment tax, right?"

"Yes, but in parallel car transactions, you can hardly stay out of it. You have to make phone calls and send emails to confirm things. It's a bit of a gray area, and you can only honestly pay taxes. Otherwise, if they really investigate, even your visa will be in trouble."

But this time it's different. Selling your patent is a pure asset sale. You can change your online business contact information to our law firm's. If someone wants to buy your editor, we'll handle everything on their behalf. You won't discuss technical details directly with the buyer, thus saving on self-employment fees. More importantly, you won't have to pay personal income tax either.

"what?"

"Yes, you don't need to pay. However, once you personally participate in technical discussions or even modify the code to meet the buyer's needs, the IRS may classify the transaction as a technical service, not an asset sale. Technical services are subject to self-employment tax, and they may even use this as leverage against you regarding your F1 visa. Usually, we can only force you to pay income tax."

However, this is an asset sale, so there's no grounds for that. Since you haven't been in the US long enough, based on the actual residency test, you'd only be considered a foreigner. Even according to the US-China tax treaty, you wouldn't have to pay a single penny.

However, I suggest we pay our California taxes; 10.55% will give us peace of mind. California's tax authorities are too troublesome. Besides, once we pay this money, the federal government can't continue its investigation. After all, as actual California residents, we've already voluntarily paid our California taxes.

Stuart added from the side, "You just need to be a good seller. The lawyers will handle the business negotiations. If there are any technical details you need, you'll have to contact us. Just make sure you don't have any contact with Microsoft."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yiran asked, "Then, when we collect federal taxes, if we say we are foreigners, but still pay California taxes, will the federal government cause us trouble?"

Ted confidently stated, "The logic is different. The federal tax system operates on a different logic than state taxes. That's why I said state taxes are necessary. State taxes are calculated based on your actual residence, or rather, they're a bit unreasonable, and arguing about the specific terms can be very troublesome. As for the federal government, they can't really say anything if we legally avoid taxes. Most importantly, if we pay state taxes, the state government will protect us."

Chen Yiran was deeply shocked. Professionals are indeed different. This could save more than 30% in taxes, which is at least several million US dollars. If Microsoft, the sucker, was really ripped off, it might even be tens of millions.

"Okay. I'll leave the company registration to you. I've already thought of a name: First Bite. If anyone comes to inquire about buying or selling, I'll just let you handle it."

Ted nodded: "Nice name. Your first pot of gold? Sure, we'll start the process for you today, registering in Delaware. Just give us the buying and selling. Trust me, although we charge a high price, we offer excellent value for money."

After leaving the Fenwick & West building, Chen Yiran first sent a message to Tom to thank him. This law firm was indeed very reliable, and they had basically gotten everything done today.

Tom replied quickly: Do you have enough money? If not, I can lend you some. Although they are very strong, they are very expensive.

Chen Yiran certainly didn't need it; the profits from parallel trading were enough to cover this small matter.

After giving a polite reply, I quickly drove to pick up Pidan. We were going to take a walk in the park near our house later that evening. Pidan had made a few good friends there in the past few days, and Chen Yiran had also made a few friends at the park.

Upon arrival, the shop assistant brought out the preserved egg. The dog saw Chen Yiran and wagged its tail like a propeller, then pounced on him, barking loudly. This was only the second time they'd been separated since he was bought, and this was its way of protesting.

The store clerk, an elderly woman, smiled and said from behind, "Pepsi played very well with a golden retriever today. He's very smart."

"Alright, alright, let's go." Chen Yiran stuffed the preserved egg into the car and gave him a toy to keep him in line.

After saying goodbye to the shop assistant, Chen Yiran drove home. He needed to go back first, as he couldn't wait to upload the video.

Back home, Chen Yiran sat down at her computer and began organizing her GitHub repository.

The front-end parser, syntax highlighting, file indexing, and project structure scanning are all open source and licensed under the MIT license.

The README includes product information, installation instructions, and basic usage, with an additional line at the end:

This project is pending patent. As previously agreed, he left a special contact email address provided by Fenwick & West.

It says that if there are any commercial collaborations, this is the contact information.

Chen Yiran read it once, and then had Jasmine check the format again before sending it out.

Then I posted on Hacker News, briefly mentioned it, and raved about it.

Then we rushed to the park with the dog, even though Pidan, who is not even six months old, was already a little tired.

However, he made plans with a girl today, so Pidan definitely has to go.

------

Chen Yiran met Hannah while walking his dog in the park.

A beautiful and intelligent dog is definitely a great tool for flirting, the best wingman.

Hannah was a typical blonde, of German descent, with a very approachable face that perfectly matched Asian beauty standards. She looked remarkably like Hannah Moir, the rock-climbing beauty model Chen Yiran later saw in a video.

She is half a year older than Chen Yiran and is currently a freshman in college.

It wasn't Stanford, it was Santa Clara University next door, where I studied music.

She was clearly not a good student; good students wouldn't skip classes and go running every day. Chen Yiran could roughly deduce that her parents were probably high-level executives in Silicon Valley, which was why she didn't live on campus and had no worries about her family, so her studies were only half-hearted.

As a second-time player, Chen Yiran had spent many years in the United States, so he was very good at distinguishing which women liked Asians.

It's not entirely true that Asian men face discrimination overseas. Rather, it's more accurate to say that marriage is more complicated because the lifestyles of ordinary Asians differ greatly from those of white people.

However, if you look at it from a slightly different perspective, if you're thick-skinned and shameless enough, you'll never lack women. You can even be a bit picky, after all, you naturally possess exotic charm, okay?

She has preconceived notions? Let her be. You're not marrying her. What does it matter if she knows anything about Chinese culture? Even if she asks if all Chinese people eat dogs, just explain it to her. (My friend experienced this, I haven't.)

In his past life, Chen Yiran, who was only moderately handsome, was repeatedly groped in his dorm. He was practically never short of female attention, and was even dragged away from the dorm entrance to the girls' dormitory on several occasions. (This is a true story; even seemingly slender girls were terrifying, I certainly couldn't break free ╮(╯▽╰)╭.)

Therefore, Chen Yiran is very experienced. He can sense that Hannah is curious and has a good impression of Asians, which makes things easier.

So after a week of preparation, we were able to meet up for dinner today. Hannah chose the place, saying it was one of her favorite Mexican restaurants, and it was also pet-friendly, so even Pidan could come in.

The two met in the park and took Pidan for another walk, but Pidan was clearly out of energy. After playing for a while, he started to whine and eventually lay down on the ground and refused to move.

Hannah laughed happily on the side, then picked up Pidan and got into Chen Yiran's car.

We went to that Mexican restaurant first and had a nice meal at the outdoor seating area. I have to say, Mexican food is pretty good.

Pidan smelled the aroma of the barbecue and kept whining. Hannah, unable to bear it any longer, asked for a bowl of water, rinsed the seasonings off the barbecue, and fed Pidan a few pieces.

Chen Yiran then began explaining the origin of the name "Pidan" (皮蛋), first mentioning its English name, Pepsi, and then the Chinese meaning of "Pidan." Getting carried away, he even took out his phone to search for pictures to show the girl.

After the two finished eating, they took the exhausted Pidan home and then went out to see a movie by themselves. They randomly chose Kick-Ass, which was quite interesting.

It was almost nine o'clock when the screening ended, and time was running out.

On the way to the parking lot, Hannah asked, "You said you're a student too, which university are you in? By the way, are you really over 18?"

Chen Yiran immediately understood and calmly said, "Birthday, January 1, 1992."

"Haha, that's a great birthday! You said you're from China, are you renting such a big house? Did your parents come over?"

Chen Yiran understood even better and calmly said, "No, it's a big place I rented simply so I could have a yard to walk the dog. It just so happens that I started a small business, so I rented a nice place."

"Haha, I told my parents today that I'm going to live at school."

Chen Yiran understood perfectly, and calmly took his hand, saying, "Then let's go, come home with me to see Pidan. I'm telling you, he can do backflips."