Bus Portraits #4: Ghetto Accountants

This happened a while ago, but it deserves to be immortalized (?) here because it's so much fun to have your expectations turned on their head. So, I'm on the bus going home when two gangsta-looking baggy-pantsed black guys, age 19 or 20, get on, do that urban swagger down the aisle and sprawl in seats nearby. Their conversation, infused with ghetto rhythm and phraseology, is just a pleasant background noise until one of them catches my attention by saying, "Yo, man, cuz ideally you want to get your PERSONAL funds taxed at the CORPORATE rate, cuz the individual tax rate is, DAMN, I mean WAY high." He explains: "Cuz, as a corporation, yo, if you can get your personal funds passed through a corporation, you get taxed like in a whole other bracket than a individual, or even a partnership for that matter." Then he fielded tax-related questions from his friend, who I'll refer to as Gangsta 1:

Gangsta 1: "Well cuz I heard Reverend Charles, he don't pay NO tax at ALL."
Gangsta 2: "What, on his personal money?"
Gangsta 1: "Naw, man, church money."
Gangsta 2: "Aw, yeah, dawg, cuz that's nonPROFit."

They also shared tips, apparently from Reverend Charles, on how to select an accountant: "Yeah an' he tole me, you wanna check out by askin'--you know, in church, people be comin' up to a little money an' all, so they contribute. An' if you ask an accountant to contribute, if he don't come up with at LEAST ten grand, he ain't--you know. He ain't the one you want. Cuz if he can't make hisSELF ten grand, how he gonna make YOU ANYthing?!? You know?!?"

My hat is off to people who surprise me...