The Case of the Kidnapped Angel: A Masao Masuto Mystery (Book Six) by Howard Fast Page B

kidnapping. Then, as events unfolded, my suspicions were confirmed. The only thing that makes no sense whatsoever is the reason for the charade.”
    â€œBut, Masao, when you found Barton’s body, did you also find the million dollars?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAh, so!”
    â€œYes, very Japanese. Do you do it purposely?”
    â€œA habit of my father’s.”
    â€œYou would have made a good policeman, but my disgraceful profession is enough for the family to endure. Of course the person who killed Barton had motives easily understood. He wanted a million dollars. And this person also knew about the kidnap plot, whether or not he was directly involved in it. But Barton—?”
    â€œMasao, you are a victim of the fact that policemen are grossly underpaid. The explanation is really very simple.”
    â€œIt is? I feel like a fool already.”
    â€œNonsense. It is simply outside your province. Mike Barton earned well over a million dollars a year. This money is paid as wages, and it is taxed by the government at a rate of fifty percent. But he also had very substantial additional income, which is categorized by the government as unearned income, and which in Mike Barton’s case would have been taxed at a rate of seventy percent. Now what this income is, I have no way of knowing, but it’s a safe guess that it was substantial.”
    â€œWhat kind of income?”
    â€œDividends on security holdings. Rents from real estate. Possibly shares in profits of films, depending on how they might have been structured. Any number of sources for what the government calls unearned income. Now when an actor works in a film, regardless of how much he is paid, a substantial part of his wages is withheld, just as a part of your own wages is withheld for tax purposes. But to some extent he decides how much should be withheld, and if there is a difference in the government’s favor, he makes it up on April fifteenth, the date for filing. If there is a difference in his favor, the government sends him a check. Of course, you are aware of this. But with unearned income and with the income of self-employed professionals who are paid by fee as independent contractors, there is no withholding. The responsibility for the payment of taxes rests with the individual, and he must anticipate his tax and pay it to the government in four installments. Now keeping that in mind, let’s return to Mike Barton. We’ll propose that he needed a large amount of money desperately and quickly. Why? Was he being blackmailed? I leave that to you. You say that the million dollars was collateralized by securities? Are you sure? Have you checked? The money was put up by his friends—have they seen the securities? And how much of the million was an overdraft granted by the bank? If he has one of those enormous Beverly Hills houses, that would be security enough for an overdraft. But what have you checked?”
    â€œAt this point, nothing,” Masuto said unhappily. “I saw no reason to question his friends concerning the securities.”
    â€œSo we don’t know how much of that million was his, but we can accept the fact that a substantial part was. He would have to clean out his bank accounts. Anyway, he needs money quickly and desperately. What to do? He and whoever was in it with him concoct a plan. Fake a kidnapping. Pay out a million dollars in ransom, which he can claim was his own money, and then take a million-dollar deduction on his income tax. If the entire million is in the seventy percent bracket, he nets a cool seven hundred thousand dollars of clear profit—plus his original million. But even if it’s all in the fifty percent bracket, he has a very neat half a million dollars in profit. Of course, since the bills would be recorded, he’d have to launder the money. But no difficulty there. He pays the ten percent fee. It’s regular big business south of the border