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> I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he's obviously unstable This is ridiculous. Okay so let's leave all the rich people alone who
by gizdan 5y ago
> I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he's obviously unstable
This is ridiculous. Okay so let's leave all the rich people alone who claim they are unstable. McAfee made millions, from what I understand, he paid little taxes on that. That's stupid. I don't care how unstable you are, or how good you are donating your "fair share". You're still not excused from paying your taxes.
- to1y 5y agoParent poster meant let's not make him look like a loon and hound him relentlessly because of it.
- hugi 5y agoBut he was a loon and a thief/tax cheat
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hartator 5y agoWas he? He was accused of not reporting potential cryto gains from talking about some cryptos. But if it didn’t realized any gains, he really didn’t have anything to report.
- studentrob 5y agoArticle says he didn't file for four years.
- pupdogg 5y agoYou don’t have to file taxes if you make less than $10k…I think that figure rose to $12k in 2020…how can you or the article prove he made more than that each of those 4 years? Always have to keep an ear open to both sides of the discussion!
- studentrob 5y agoTIL! I thought federal was required even with no income. Still, you're probably leaving money on the table if you don't file with no income, especially this last year with all the stimulus. About whether McAfee could prove no income, I guess he would've had his day in court to show it.
- hartator 5y ago> About whether McAfee could prove no income, I guess he would've had his day in court to show it. I would say the burden of proof is on the government.
- studentrob 5y agoYes, I could have phrased that differently.
- rcurry 5y agoExactly. Thank you.
- themacguffinman 5y agoOk but AFAICT the US government didn't make him look like a loon nor did they hound him relentlessly because he was a loon. They hounded him relentlessly to pay his taxes which is easily resolved by paying taxes, something even loons are capable of. > The US Justice Department alleged that McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees. He was also accused of concealing assets, including a yacht and real estate property, also in other people's names. > In recent years, McAfee repeatedly claimed that there was a plot to get him - however the [Spanish National] court said there was "no revealing evidence" that he was being prosecuted for political or ideological reasons, El Pais reported.
- gizdan 5y agoAs use hugi said, that's exactly what he was, so why shouldn't we?
- toolz 5y agoI'd bet my entire net worth you've never even met the guy you're so confident you know enough about to drag his name through the mud.
- Judgmentality 5y agoI find it bizarre how many comments are focused on the virtues of the man over tax fraud and how few people are mentioning he's wanted for murder in Belize. And I didn't just skim some articles on it - I believe he killed someone. He's also been accused of rape. I've never met the guy but when there's evidence he killed someone and another person claiming she was raped by him, it seems like maybe he's not so great?
- toolz 5y agoI'm not claiming otherwise, he may have well been crazy and horrible, but the fact of the matter is that he's a controversial character and controversial characters don't exactly have nothing but truth being spoken about them on the internet.
- Judgmentality 5y agoThat's a fair point, and I guess I very poorly incorporated that into my original comment. I just find it so weird we're arguing over ethics of tax fraud when there's reason to believe he's a murderer and a rapist. That said, he never had a trial for those crimes. The media has lied about stuff before. He seems pretty shady to me but I'm not pretending to have all the facts.
- toolz 5y agocan you link some evidence that he's a murderer? I'm reading up on it now and it doesn't appear he was ever even a suspect in the murder case from the local authorities.
- auggierose 5y agoI guess Google, Facebook and Apple are stupid then too.
- gizdan 5y agoYes. Yes, they absolutely are, and they should be prosecuted for their tax avoidance. Same with Amazon and all other companies. I, as lone individual tax payer, paid more in taxes in the UK than Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple did, probably combined. That is not okay. Edit: evasion > avoidance.
- joejerryronnie 5y agoThere is a big difference between illegal tax evasion and leveraging existing tax code to reduce your taxes as much as possible.
- gizdan 5y agoI edited my comment. I meant tax avoidance. I totally understand that there is legal means of essentially not paying taxes. That still does not make it okay. As I mentioned, I, as a lone tax payer, who made less then £100k, paid more in taxes in FAANG combined in the UK. That FAANG, who made billions. I probably paid more in the UK than FAANG paid in federal taxes (in the US) combined. The fact that Bezos was able to claim tax refunds despite him literally being the richest person in the world and to hear/read people defending him because "he legally did so" is absolutely mind boggling.
- moreira 5y agoYour outrage might be aimed at the wrong people. Consider the law. They’re following it, and you’re saying “we should punish them for following the law”. That’s never going to happen. Ask yourself why the law allows stuff like that to happen in the first place. It should not. It clearly has been cracked, and needs an update.
- Camas 5y ago
- Bancakes 5y agoBezos and McAffee paid about the same amount of taxes.
- slg 5y agoThat isn't relevant for two reasons: 1. Tax evasion and tax avoidance are not the same thing. 2. Most people who think McAffee didn't pay enough taxes probably also believe Bezos doesn't pay enough taxes.
- Bancakes 5y agoTax avoidance is tax evasion in all ways but legal.
- slg 5y agoWell yes, but the legality is the most important criteria. Does anyone voluntarily pay more in taxes than they legally have to pay? I am completely onboard with the position that the rich don't pay enough taxes. I also agree that it is unfair how much control over the political system their money gives them and how that power can be used to add in even more tax breaks. However it is silly to pretend that rich people should pay more in taxes than they are legally required to pay.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- javagram 5y agoLeaked tax returns show Bezos paid $973 million in taxes. I don’t think mcafee ever had that much to his name much less paying taxes at that level. He publicly said he hadn’t filed taxes, blatantly flouting the law. He was also a scammer indicted for cryptocurrency pump and dump schemes that fleeced twitter users.
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- bobcallme 5y agoTaxation is theft. Fuck you and your blind support for the war machine, the war on drugs and the killing of millions of people at home and abroad. No tax in today's society is just. The US's case against John McAfee is weak at best and he should not be dead. Downvote and censor all you want because rational debate has been dead hear for while now.
- dang 5y agoWe've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site rules. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ljm 5y agoI see your point... but we do leave the rich people alone. That's why we have individual people who have more money than entire countries. We do a lot of counter-intuitive things to keep the rich people on board. We haven't evolved from aristocracy, I'm not sure we can.
- XorNot 5y agoThe existence of injustice doesn't justify injustice.
- ljm 5y agoIt does, by virtue of existing. Injustice is valid, that is why people appeal against justice and other people appeal for it. We haven't actually agreed on what justice and injustice mean. You can't take one part of the dichotomy and ignore the rest.
- marricks 5y agoHow many rich people do get charged for tax avoidance? Often times I feel like there's a whole class of rules which mainly exist to punish you if you step out of line. Take for instance gun permits in blue states. Not saying that he didn't avoid taxes egregiously enough to get caught, just interesting to consider.
- nostrademons 5y agoMost rich people evade taxes legally, by following the letter of the law but structuring their assets and income in a way that they just happen to owe no taxes. The IRS are consummate bureaucrats. They don't write the tax code, they just enforce it. They enforce it quite firmly, but if you happen to get a loophole written into the tax code and drive a billion-dollar LLC through it, they aren't going to care. McAfee made the mistake of open defiance of the tax code, and that's a big no-no. If the government starts letting open defiance slide, everyone will openly defy it, and there won't be a government. That's why they threw the book at him.
- marricks 5y agoAh, ok. That makes complete sense.
- capeterson 5y agoIMO extradition over unpaid taxes is kind of severe. I agree that we should all pay our taxes, but why not just hold him at the gate whenever he happens to fly in the US? Is this really something that requires extradition?
- dragonwriter 5y ago> IMO extradition over unpaid taxes is kind of severe? He wasn't indicted for unpaid taxes, but for tax evasion, which is a different thing (and securities fraud.)
- capeterson 5y agoThat's true! My bad. Nonetheless, I think financial crimes really do not deserve extradition, especially for a deranged geriatric. He would have likely came to the US again at some point, I have no idea why this was necessary.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> He would have likely came to the US again at some point, He announced he waa on the run from the tax investigation before he was criminally indicted for invasion (Jan 2019, the indictment was issued in 2020.) Why do you think he would come back after being indicted?