Aakash soon reached the Soaltee Hotel. He was quite surprised to see that he was personally received by a whole entourage of people in the lobby of the hotel.
There were a total of 8 people waiting for him. Seven of the were foreigners, most probably the people that came here for the deal while the guy was for sure a local. He was most probably a guide arranged for them whilst they were staying here.
Aakash quickly shook hands with the man that seemed to lead the whole group and smiled while the other party started introducing himself.
"Hello, I am Blake Pine, current Vice president of the Microsoft's Asian division. I still can't believe that you are so young yet so talented."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Aakash Neupane."
Blake was a middle aged man in his early fifties or so he seemed. He had a warm smile on his face throughout this whole interaction but Aakash didn't mean to let his guard down. After all, Being the Vice president of the Asian division in Microsoft, he must have some real capabilities.
Blake didn't continue to entangle Aakash and introduced him to his colleagues next to him.
"This is my secretary, Alice Guiterrez." Blake said while pointing at one of the ladies in her late twenties.
"Trevor Price. Holden Moore. Wesley Morgan. Erica Meyer…." Aakash didn't think much and shook hands with the ones that came forward to shake hands.
"And this is our translator and guide Ashok Sethi."
Aakash shook hands with Ashok with a smile while Ashok said nervously, "You seem to be doing pretty well at this young age, bhai."(Author's note: Bhai means younger brother in Nepali. Also, this Dai/Bhai is said to any guy older/younger than you but of same generation, not just your siblings.)
"Yes, life's going pretty good, dai."
His attention was mostly attracted by Erica as she had slightly scratched his hands while she was shaking hands with him. It made him feel a bit excited but he didn't think much of it after a while.
Why, you ask. It is very simple. These people know what they are here for. Aakash is soon to earn over 100 million dollars. It was quite obvious that some girls who would want to taste some of that sweetness will flock to him.
After the passing of the initial excitement, Aakash was quite skeptic of Erica's purpose and didn't think much of her.
"Let's move to the conference room.", Blake said.
"Sure. Lead the way."
'It seems that all preparations have been done.', Aakash thought while walking beside Blake as they talked about the recent happenings of the world, more importantly the ransomware virus attack that was going on.
The conference room wasn't that big. Ashok had already been asked to wait in the lobby as the meeting was supposed to be a bit confidential.
Aakash actually didn't care much but it was Blake who insisted that protocol must be followed. The eight people went into the conference room.
There were already three people inside that seemed to be going through some documents. Blake quickly introduced them to Aakash who had just entered.
"These lawyers are the ones responsible for managing taxes and registering the company for you and also checking these documents. But, of course, you can arrange for your someone to check their if you are not comfortable."
"No need. Which one of you is the one responsible for registering the company?"
"It's me. The relevant procedures have already been taken care of. We were at work since yesterday. All you have to do is name the company. The registered capital of the company has been listed as 5,000 dollars which you will also have to provide. The related documents will reach you by tomorrow."
"Actually, I will not be registering a company just yet. Leave your contact number and you may leave. I will contact you when I have such plans."
Everyone's face visibly changed as soon as these sentences came out from Aakash's mouth and they were all equally stunned.
"Mr. Aakash, if you do this and provide your services to us in a personal capacity, then the amount of taxes you will have to pay will be quite astronomical.", Blake said hurriedly.
"I know what I am doing. Just do it like that."
"Very well.", Blake took out a check and handed it to the lawyer just now and motioned for him to take his leave.
"I will receive the amount for this transaction in my own account in a personal capacity. All you need to do is facilitate that and we can sign the contract."
Everyone looked at Aakash in a dumbfounded manner. Blake gave a slight cough when the tax lawyer well versed in these matters stood up and said, "If you had chosen to establish the company and make this a company-company transaction, you would have to pay a flat-out 25 percent tax in this gain. Since you chose not to do this, this income will be taxed as personal income."
"You don't seem married. So, the tax that needs to be paid by a unmarried person is 1% for the first $5,000 , 10% for the next $2,000 , 20% for the next $3,000 , 30% for the next $10,000 and 36% for the remaining amount."
"Also, you will have to report this transaction to the NRB. Although you can pay taxes for this sum of money during the end of the fiscal year. I recommend doing it as soon as you get the amount after all, it is quite a big amount. It will take lots of time to process it."
"Other than that, there is nothing you need to do. I still suggest signing this contract in a company-company matter. You will save tens of millions of dollars."
Aakash nodded a bit but didn't heed his advice.
"Before we make modifications to the contract regarding this matter, there is something else we need to discuss."
Blake was a bit worried. If it was as he feared and Aakash just wanted to take this chance to increase prices, this deal would be quite hard and could even be the biggest stain of his career. As one of the high levels of Microsoft, he pretty well knew what predicament Microsoft was currently in and also knew the importance of this deal to Microsoft.
"What would Mr. Aakash like to discuss?"