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John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

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Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#561
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. 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.

There is a big difference between illegal tax evasion and leveraging existing tax code to reduce your taxes as much as possible.

I 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.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#563
post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a massive difference between following poorly written laws correctly and breaking the law.

Yes -- one writes the laws, the other disregards them.

Huh? The government writes the laws, the people elect them. These laws could say "95% maximum tax bracket" (They used to) but they don't. There could be a CEO tax, but there isn't.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#565
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed an alternative possiblity, but the possiblity that he was murdered should not be discounted. Murdering those that challenge authority has been happening since the dawn of history and nothing has fundamentally changed. Well other than needing to make it look like a suicide since modern society likes to believe it's enlightened.

There's a saying, you can't escape death and taxes.

You can escape taxes with death though

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#567
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. 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.

There is a big difference between illegal tax evasion and leveraging existing tax code to reduce your taxes as much as possible.

[deleted]

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#568

30 years for tax evasion? No wonder he preferred to die. I mean, you’ll get jail time for severe cases of tax evasion in Germany, too, but it’s a couple of years at max and most of the time it’s on probation. How do you justify your draconic punishments in the US which is supposed to be a free country?

Germany has more draconic laws than the US in this situation, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. "Under German law, the maximum term for one count of aggravated tax evasion is 10 years. If an accused is convicted of more than one count, the court can increase the maximum to 15 years." The US is 5 years for each count, half of Germany's. Macafee was under accused of multiple crimes, which added up to the headl…

Nope, we don’t add up prison time in Germany for repeating the same or related crimes over and over. On top, the 10/15 years are the maximum and barely reached. E.g. Uli Hoeneß, ex-manager of the soccer club Bayern Munich, got 3.5 years for evasion of ~30m dollar in a total of 7 counts, but could actually leave prison after sth like two years, 1.5 of which where „open jail time“, so he could go to work and only had to sleep in jail.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As cynical as it might seem, there is an alternative possibility: in spite of getting a tattoo saying he would not kill himself, and in spite of posting a tweet saying he would not kill himself, he went ahead and killed himself.

It is indeed an alternative possiblity, but the possiblity that he was murdered should not be discounted. Murdering those that challenge authority has been happening since the dawn of history and nothing has fundamentally changed. Well other than needing to make it look like a suicide since modern society likes to believe it's enlightened.

It should absolutely be discounted. There's literally no evidence suggesting he was murdered.

He was about to be extradited, the US Government was well on their way to making an example of him. There was no incentive to murder him.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#570
post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a massive difference between following poorly written laws correctly and breaking the law.

Yes -- one writes the laws, the other disregards them.

I mean he certainly could afford some good CPAs to mitigate his tax burden if he wanted to.
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