Chapter 370: Coach Lee Physical Training Center (1/2)

Chapter 370: Coach Lee Physical Training Center

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li named his training center ”Coach Lee Physical Training Center”. To make it easier to be accepted by Americans, he didn't use the Chinese Pinyin ”Li”, but used ”Lee” in English, instead.

Now that he had a building, the rest was easy. Dai Li spent some funds on lawyer's fee, in order to get the training hall registration settled. After that, Dai Li made some simple alterations to the training hall. It was a small gym, and soon, the equipment and facilities were all ready. Dai Li also spent a little money to buy some new, modern equipment.

Dai Li hadn't hired any other workers yet, so currently he only had one task, which was to train disabled athletes for free, which he took as doing charity. No profitable business was coming to him yet, so Dai Li felt that he could handle the training all by himself for now. After all, the most expensive thing in America was human resources, so to hire less people meant to save more money for future use.

Dai Li even did the cleaning by himself. The training center just opened, few guests came to visit, and since there was nothing to do, he had sufficient time to mop the floor, or to wipe equipment. Once the training center got going and on the right track, he planned to find a cleaning company to take charge of this job.

Dai Li knew nothing about finance, so he directly gave those issues to the accounting firm. American small enterprises could afford professional accountants, hence, they usually gave corporate finance tasks to an accounting firm, letting the firm be in charge of all special financial and tax reporting.

It was also different from domestic situations. Domestic accounting firms' main clients were big enterprises and companies, and the firms usually offered large scale accounting and audit services. Small companies and individual businesses didn't have many things to ask accounting firms to help with. But in America, the main clients of accounting firms were small companies and individuals, as for big enterprises, hiring private accountants would be more economical.

Unlike a domestic situation, where individual income tax was deducted directly from wages, in America, tax returns should be done by citizens themselves. Moreover, American tax programs and tax relief projects were very complicated, so ordinary people could hardly figure them out. If, unfortunately, someone missed a program carelessly, that individual would be charged with tax fraud. Therefore, they needed professional accountants for help.

Many Americans, especially low-income groups, since they received a tax reduction or subsidy, might not need to pay for tax. But they must have still gone through the tax return process to confirm this. Therefore, when in tax season, it was common to hear that poor people didn't need to pay even a cent for taxes, but that they had to give their accountants hundreds of dollars for going through the tax-returning process, still.

Dai Li had a clear plan for his training center. In the beginning level, he would not hire any other workers, so he could save as much labor costs as possible. Of course, he would not be stingy, and when there was some money he must spend, like a lawyer's fee or accountant's fee, well, those he would consider as unavoidable costs. If he tried to make money-saving moves on those aspects, in the future, he might get himself into big trouble, which could then not be solved by thousands, or even tens of thousands, of dollars!

...

Coach Lee Physical Training Center opened, unknown to the public, no opening ceremony, no ribbon-cutting, no colorful flags or banners. Perhaps, only when neighbors walked by, did they notice that the previous gym had now turned into a physical training center.

The first day, there were no customers at all. Professional physical training centers like this, unlike gyms, were aimed at athletes rather than ordinary fitness enthusiasts, and thus, they charged higher fees than gyms. It was similar to cheap mass-marketed products, which had a large amount of buyers but gained little profit, while luxuries might be displayed for a long time before they were sold, but they brought high profits in return.

Dai Li didn't expect people to flood in. Physical training valued public praise most, while praises, he knew, were collected over time. But Dai Li didn't have much time to kill. In the afternoon, a social worker from the Los Angeles Association for the Disabled came to the Coach Lee Physical Training Center.

”Coach Lee, this is the name list of your disabled athletes, twelve people in total.” The social worker handed a list to Dai Li.

Training ten to fifteen disabled athletes was what Dai Li had promised. Mr. Anthony didn't profit at Dai Li's expense, as he had selected twelve people, neither more nor less, but just the right amount, as agreed upon.

Dai Li received the list and took a careful look at it, then asked, ”This is just a list with names on it, but I need more detailed information about my trainees, like age, height, weight, detailed impairments, causes of disabilities, etc.”

The social worker frowned. ”These facts are private, Coach Lee, America pays attention to the protection of personal privacy.”

”I understand, and I know how to protect my customers' privacies. But to organize high-level physical training, I must know this information, before I make training plans.” Dai Li stretched his arms. ”Let me give you a quick example: If a normal individual's standard weight is 150 pounds, then, as a disabled person who lacks an arm or a leg, the same weight would be overweight for him, and thus, my training plans must then include weight loss.”

”Alright, I will bring their detailed information to you.” The social worker compromised. He paused, then told Dai Li, ”Coach Lee, in observing your physical training center, I suggest you add some barrierless facilities.”

How come I forgot?! Adding barrierless facilities also costs money, so even basing only on this point, I could ask for a higher discount from Anthony. Dai Li suddenly regretted not doing so earlier.

But Dai Li maintained a smile, saying, ”Sorry, I didn't think about that. This place used to be a gymnastic hall, hence, while most gymnasts don't have mobility impairments, there were no barrierless facilities.”

”A polite suggestion, Mr. Lee, that building barrierless facilities can bring you tax incentives.” The social worker smiled and said, ”American barrierless facilities are widespread, and are also benefit from the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This act stipulates that companies that build barrierless facilities can enjoy tax preferences. Hence, enterprises are enthusiastic about building barrierless facilities voluntarily. Except in public areas, barrierless facilities are built by enterprise owners.”

Dai Li showed a ”This is a good lesson” look in reply. In the country, public intellectuals told people that the reasons enterprise owners voluntarily built barrierless facilities were that they had high political quality and good virtue, and that they sincerely considered disabled people. Until now, Dai Li had not realized that by doing so, he could pay less tax.

But Dai Li still praised, ”America is very kind to vulnerable groups like disabled people. Even in my country, we know that, in America, as long as you are disabled, you can receive 800 dollars per month from the government.”

”Who told you this? I never thought that the Far Eastern World had such a misunderstanding of America.” The social worker stared at Dai Li with surprise, then said, ”Our welfare for the disabled varies from state to state, let alone having a so-called fixed amount. So the person who told you that disabled Americans receive a certain amount of subsidy every month must be a liar! Once, there were scammers doing similar things in America.”

”Then what about common disabled people, how much can they get from the government?” asked Dai Li.

”The disabled receive benefits mainly through two programs, the first one is the Social Safety Disability Insurance. Every individual with a job should pay a social safety tax, a part of which is then turned into a fund of Social Safety Disability Insurance, and the taxpayer is the insured. If the insured became disabled, they could receive money from this insurance. The actual amount of money that person could have depends on their age and income, hence, it is not a fixed number. If the insured is dead, the insured's minor children and spouse, who hasn't reached retirement age, could also receive money from the insurance,” explained the social worker.

”Ah, is that so!” Dai Li nodded. He now understood that the so-called Social Safety Disability Insurance was equal to domestic employment injury insurance 2.0. The two insurances were mandatory, and only people with jobs could buy the insurances. The difference was that employment injury insurance only compensated injuries on-the-job, while American Social Safety Disability Insurance compensated the insured, as long as the insured was disabled.