McScrap, please allow me to lend the words of Captain Bailey that you so adequately provided: "Trust is in bargains, in deeds."
John has a deed to accomplish in order to be trusted again. I have expectations from him and I'm certain Captain Bailey does also.
As for your base in Texas, I admit your offer is tempting but we will kindly refuse. It is located very close to Planet Houston and the nearby stationary battleship and this may put at risk the reputation of T&T, something that we would like to avoid.
On the contrary, our operators regularly come across valuable cargo drifting in space, previously in possession of Corporate transports. We'd like to be able to contact T&T in order to tractor the cargo and share the profits with us. Furthermore, we may need to have some cargo moved from time to time (from a friendly base).
Regarding the "tax excemption" as you call it, I made it clear to Captain Bailey that T&T is being excempted from our operations. That status will become permanent once John completes his task and thus our agreement goes online.
McScrap all my cards are now open. Do not bother me again until John completes his task.