Money Issues

How a shadowrunner can gain more money...


Loans: The shadowrunner takes on a high-interest loan. The GM approves a dollar amount. Thereafter, the shadowrunner takes on a lifestyle with a cost equal to 2% of the loan amount. (Borrowing 200k costs 4k per month). This represents the interest only: the shadowrunner must pay the 200k to remove the loan, with a 10% upcharge (costing 220k). Failure to pay may add the hunted flaw or bad reputation.

Investments: The opposite of loans, the shadowrunner invests a specific amount wisely. He puts aside a dollar amount and each month gains 1% of that amount. (So a 200k investment earns 1k per month). This represents the interest; the shadowrunner may remove his 100k at a later time, though at a 10% penalty. (Removing 90k).

Money Laundering: When getting ahold of money, there are 2 sources: legal money and illegal money. Money that comes from day jobs, loans, etc is legal- it can be traced as far as where you got it, and you are allowed to get it. Money from illegal means (most shadowruns) is not traceable, and the IRS may be interested to find out where all your income is coming from. This is where the money laundering comes in.

A shadowrunner can be assumed to spend 30% of his gross shadowrunning income on laundering (10% for the launderer, 20% in taxes). The money laundering specialization of knowledge:economics can help with this. Each success at TN4 increases the TN for someone to detect your wrongdoings, but prevents you from paying the 10% laundering. If a shadowrunner chooses not to pay taxes, the IRS will roll a yearly Audit Check. (TN 8, dice = to the lifestyle of the shadowrunner with 0=squatter, and 6 at luxury.) One success means they take note but do nothing. Two+ successes means that they audit the shadowrunner, which may cause all kinds of problems. The IRS gets +1 die per 10K of the shadowrunner's bank account. Money spend on purchasing illegal goods does not count towards this (as he never generated recipts). Multiple identities are hard to maintain, but may help avoid audits, though if the shadowrunner pays taxes, he is much less likely to be noticed by the IRS- increasing the TN to 12, but paying 20% of his runner income.

Technological Decay
Each year a shadowrunner's equipment is assumed to be a little out of date as new techniques come up. The rating of any device with a rating goes down by 1 each year unless the shadowrunner pays 5% of the purchase price of the item getting "upgrades" to keep himself current. This goes for cyberware also.