I came across the phrase “He got a kick out of doing Uncle Sam,” in the following sentence of Jeffery Archer’s novel, “Not a penny more, Not a penny less.”
“It amused him (Harvey Metcalfe, a billionaire who climbed up from a NYSE messengerboy) to do a little business in Europe at the same time, giving him the opportunity to make some more money for his Swiss bank account in Zurich. He did not need a Swiss account, but somehow he got a kick out of doing Uncle Sam.”
What does “Do Uncle Sam" mean? I don’t find the head of “Do Uncle Sam” in Google Search, or on Ngram.
Does “got a kick out of doing Uncle Sam” mean “excited in doing American dream business”?
Best Answer
I've got to admit I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I think Archer is using the verb to do in TheFreeDictionary's sense 12 (slang) To cheat; swindle. And Uncle Sam (US) is slang for America (the nation, government, people, military, etc.)
By stashing the money in a Swiss bank account (commonly understood to be untraceable by tax authorities), Metcalfe is cheating the American government of its rightful share (of tax which should be paid).
To get a kick out of something/doing something is another slang/informal usage meaning to enjoy doing something very much. The implication being that even though Metcalfe is a billionaire (who shouldn't actually need to chisel the government out of a bit of tax), he just likes doing it for "fun".