Malicious Compliance

So I once made the mistake permitting a client to store some (say a dozen) boxes of financial records in my home for a couple of weeks. By 'permit', I mean they just dumped them there, and I didn't physically restrain them from leaving. This is in Vietnam, where you are required by law to keep your corporate records for 35 years. The government already had a copy of these records, this was the company's copy. It's things like tax invoices, contracts, audits, expenses, and so on -- you hold on to them to protect yourself from incorrect claims.

Two weeks turned into over a year, they had accumulated quite a collection of unpaid invoices, and I had halted all work for them long ago. Needless to say, I was not pleased with the boxes all over my house and the lack of responses about it. As you may know, in Vietnam our houses are not so big -- I think mine is under 25 square meters. So this was beyond absurd.

Eventually, I was gloriously told "to just do whatever", in writing. So rather than go to the dumpster, I sold the boxes of paper to a scrap dealer for VND 10,000 (about USD 0.50 at the time). Not because I'm petty or anything -- it's important to recycle and save the planet, right?

Fast forward a couple of years, I see their company license has been revoked -- they failed to pay some tax or other. Probably because they didn't keep any records to work out what taxes to pay...

If the director ever steps foot in the country again, newer laws permit the authorities to withhold their passport until taxes are paid -- and the authorities can quote any amount they want, since they have the only copy of the financials :)

I see no need to volunteer that particular piece of information. Time makes fools of us all, but some people faster than others.