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Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

by FDSGSG 7y ago

Scoundreller 7y ago
Doesn't sound "perfectly legal" when tax authorities are running after you.
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  Dunno, in my case the court agreed that my actions were "perfectly legal".
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    Care to share the details?
    - FDSGSG 7y ago
      Nothing exciting, the government felt that imaginary internet money should not be treated like other similar assets. Luckily the courts disagreed in the end. With tax laws being so complicated these disputes are everyday stuff for anyone engaged in any "unusual" activities.
      - Scoundreller 7y ago
        Heh, the amount of people that think crypto is an asset class that would be taxed differently than any other asset class is astounding. Sounds like your tax jurisdiction was in that group (!). Though there are a bunch of unanswered questions in a lot of jurisdictions: How do you treat a fork? Is it income? A dividend? A stock split? A spinoff? Some of these require the originator to file paperwork, and no crypto chain could possibly do that. And what initial value? $0? Day1 trading value?
- gambiting 7y ago
  At a certain level of complexity even the tax authorities can't decide what is legal and what isn't and they will basically try legal action against you to see what the court decides. I've pursued an official statement from my country's tax authority about a tax issue I had pertaining paying taxes when you do business in several countries at once, and after months of hassling the tax office through a lawyer we finally got a letter saying that "we cannot see anything wrong with what you are trying to do, but this letter is not binding, it is neither a promise nor a guarantee that we will never take any legal action against you if we decide differently at any point in the future. This is all advice that we will be providing on the matter". Guess what happened - a year later they decided it wasn't ok, and of course the letter they wrote was worth as much as toilet paper in the court. It took 5 more years and a very decent amount of money to fight against it and finally get them to admit they were wrong and there is no issue. But of course no one will give you 5 years of not being able to run your business back.
ravitation 7y ago
Settling a tax dispute with $345 million owed is indicative of doing something wrong. It's different than you just being audited. At best it's indicative of bad accounting, but for a company like Activision Blizzard and at that amount that seems unlikely.
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  Not really, taxation at this level is extremely complex. $345 million could just be because of unclear phrasing.
  - ravitation 7y ago
    It doesn't matter. Like I said, either way, it is indicative of doing something wrong.
    - FDSGSG 7y ago
      Not really, it's simply indicative of a disagreement. wrong tends to suggest tax fraud.
      - ravitation 7y ago
        I think you're being a little consciously naive. Choosing not to prosecute (especially because prosecuting tax fraud requires proof of willfulness) and simply collecting a tax deficit is pretty common, especially in cases of corporate tax evasion. The disagreement in this case is called a tax deficit, and is what I meant by wrong. It's also the first necessary part of tax fraud. EDIT: Also, if you read about the source of the $345 million tax bill (from the article), it's hard to see how this would've been a problem with "unclear phrasing"...
        ryanlol 7y ago
        If it was a problem with “clear phrasing” it’d be called tax fraud, no?
mrighele 7y ago
In the article they mention that they moved money to countries that are in a EU blacklist so for now i am siding with tax authorities
TheTruth321 7y ago
Cool story, pr!ck. Seems like you favour your own opinion before legal opinion. F!ck you you little mercenary.
JudgeWapner 7y ago
Do you shelter your money into "tax havens" ? If so, why do you cheat the system this way (note: I didn't ask the question "is this legal", so please don't bake that affirmation into your response).
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  Yes I do! After I got sick and tired of the nonsense games my local tax authority was playing, I moved out of the country and took all of my assets with me. I did not mind paying the taxes, I did however mind the authorities trying to defraud me into paying non existent tax liabilities. They've since been forced to stop doing that.

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

by FDSGSG 7y ago

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

Scoundreller 7y ago

Doesn't sound "perfectly legal" when tax authorities are running after you.

FDSGSG 7y ago
Dunno, in my case the court agreed that my actions were "perfectly legal".
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Care to share the details?
  - FDSGSG 7y ago
    Nothing exciting, the government felt that imaginary internet money should not be treated like other similar assets. Luckily the courts disagreed in the end. With tax laws being so complicated these disputes are everyday stuff for anyone engaged in any "unusual" activities.
    - Scoundreller 7y ago
      Heh, the amount of people that think crypto is an asset class that would be taxed differently than any other asset class is astounding. Sounds like your tax jurisdiction was in that group (!). Though there are a bunch of unanswered questions in a lot of jurisdictions: How do you treat a fork? Is it income? A dividend? A stock split? A spinoff? Some of these require the originator to file paperwork, and no crypto chain could possibly do that. And what initial value? $0? Day1 trading value?
gambiting 7y ago
At a certain level of complexity even the tax authorities can't decide what is legal and what isn't and they will basically try legal action against you to see what the court decides. I've pursued an official statement from my country's tax authority about a tax issue I had pertaining paying taxes when you do business in several countries at once, and after months of hassling the tax office through a lawyer we finally got a letter saying that "we cannot see anything wrong with what you are trying to do, but this letter is not binding, it is neither a promise nor a guarantee that we will never take any legal action against you if we decide differently at any point in the future. This is all advice that we will be providing on the matter". Guess what happened - a year later they decided it wasn't ok, and of course the letter they wrote was worth as much as toilet paper in the court. It took 5 more years and a very decent amount of money to fight against it and finally get them to admit they were wrong and there is no issue. But of course no one will give you 5 years of not being able to run your business back.

ravitation 7y ago

Settling a tax dispute with $345 million owed is indicative of doing something wrong. It's different than you just being audited. At best it's indicative of bad accounting, but for a company like Activision Blizzard and at that amount that seems unlikely.

FDSGSG 7y ago
Not really, taxation at this level is extremely complex. $345 million could just be because of unclear phrasing.
- ravitation 7y ago
  It doesn't matter. Like I said, either way, it is indicative of doing something wrong.
  - FDSGSG 7y ago
    Not really, it's simply indicative of a disagreement. wrong tends to suggest tax fraud.
    - ravitation 7y ago
      I think you're being a little consciously naive. Choosing not to prosecute (especially because prosecuting tax fraud requires proof of willfulness) and simply collecting a tax deficit is pretty common, especially in cases of corporate tax evasion. The disagreement in this case is called a tax deficit, and is what I meant by wrong. It's also the first necessary part of tax fraud. EDIT: Also, if you read about the source of the $345 million tax bill (from the article), it's hard to see how this would've been a problem with "unclear phrasing"...
      - ryanlol 7y ago
        If it was a problem with “clear phrasing” it’d be called tax fraud, no?

mrighele 7y ago

In the article they mention that they moved money to countries that are in a EU blacklist so for now i am siding with tax authorities

TheTruth321 7y ago

Cool story, pr!ck. Seems like you favour your own opinion before legal opinion. F!ck you you little mercenary.

JudgeWapner 7y ago

Do you shelter your money into "tax havens" ? If so, why do you cheat the system this way (note: I didn't ask the question "is this legal", so please don't bake that affirmation into your response).

FDSGSG 7y ago
Yes I do! After I got sick and tired of the nonsense games my local tax authority was playing, I moved out of the country and took all of my assets with me. I did not mind paying the taxes, I did however mind the authorities trying to defraud me into paying non existent tax liabilities. They've since been forced to stop doing that.