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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

#651

Post by syshum »

G3rn0ti wrote: post #418

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?

the U.S. legal system is designed to ensure even innocent people plead guilty, it does this by coercing its victims with cruel punishments but then say "but if you just sign here and admit you did it we will agree to these much much lesser punishment"

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

#652

Post by H8crilA »

KVFinn wrote: post #502

Was just reading about McAfee freebasing bath salts from old posts on an old Joe Rogan forum and not paying taxes seems like the absolute least he was up to: >I've processed 23 kilos of this stuff in the past year or so, and bump it myself every day - in fair quantities the hypersexuality... is beyond belief. I have had a number of acquaintances (both male and female) who have rubbed their genitals way past the point…

What compound(s) is(are) those?

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

#653

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

egypturnash wrote: post #599
rcurry wrote: post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

Musk's a rich kook and I sure don't see the government screwing with him.

I mean you could ask him but I'm pretty sure he'd say the SEC is out to get him.

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

#654

Post by marricks »

gizdan wrote: post #489
rcurry wrote: post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

> 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.

How 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.

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

#655

Post by balozi »

dccoolgai wrote: post #285

Didn't he always say he had a bunch of "dirt" that was triggered to release on a coffin switch? Guess we'll find out soon.

Definitely seems like the sort of man that would have a lot of other people's secrets. It would be a shame if he took them to his grave with him.

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

#656

Post by uDontKnowMe »

gpt5 wrote: post #504
dcolkitt wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prison time for tax evasion is extremely rare in the US. Almost always the IRS just collects the penalty and moves on. The only real exceptions are either for criminals with a lot of other charges stacked up (eg mob bosses). Or a public figure making a political statement like Wesley Snipes. Not saying this is good or bad. Just saying it’s how it is. Joe Sixpack who fails to report some cash income will almost certai…

Selective enforcement is bad. The fact that the law says that you could go to prison for one year for not filing taxes on time, but that it's rarely enforced means that they should fix the law. Using it only on "bad guys" is a recipe for the government punishing people that disagrees with them.

>Using it only on "bad guys" is a recipe for the government punishing people that disagrees with them.

Indeed that's exactly how it is being used if it's true that they throw the book at public figures for making political statements like Wesley Snipes.

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

#657

Post by jpmattia »

iohead wrote: post #647
G3rn0ti wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How high is the US income tax? And is it progressive?

At the time of this writing (mid 2021), US tax breakdown for the highest income bracket in California is as follows. # Federal * Long Term Capital Gains Tax = 20% * Short Term Capital Gains Tax = 37% * Earned Income / Ordinary Income Tax = 37% * Net Investment Income Tax = 3.8% * Medicare Payroll Tax (W-2 Wages) = 1.45% * Additional Medicare Tax (W-2 Wages) = 0.9% # State (California has the highest rate) * CA State…

You left out FICA, but it's also worth noting that the W-2 taxes have a maximum for the year, so the income bracket of 37% does not overlap with W-2 taxes.

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

#658

Post by dang »

Scoundreller wrote: post #95
neom wrote: post #66

I met John in an Atlanta airport lounge years ago[1]. I recognized him immediately as I've always admired him, and I decided to go up to him and tell him as much. He invited me to sit down, and told him about when I was a teenager in the 90s learning about tech entrepreneurs at the time, I always thought he was pretty cool and had good ideas. I told him I respected him, and that I was sure he'd lived an incredible li…

Your sketchy looking link which I mistakenly clicked on instead of copy and pasting into my VM is b0rk. Says "This item has exceeded its view limit!"

We've since replaced the original link, by the author's request.

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

#659

Post by nostrademons »

marricks wrote: post #654
gizdan wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

How 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.

Most 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.

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

#660

Post by iohead »

jpmattia wrote: post #657
iohead wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the time of this writing (mid 2021), US tax breakdown for the highest income bracket in California is as follows. # Federal * Long Term Capital Gains Tax = 20% * Short Term Capital Gains Tax = 37% * Earned Income / Ordinary Income Tax = 37% * Net Investment Income Tax = 3.8% * Medicare Payroll Tax (W-2 Wages) = 1.45% * Additional Medicare Tax (W-2 Wages) = 0.9% # State (California has the highest rate) * CA State…

You left out FICA, but it's also worth noting that the W-2 taxes have a maximum for the year, so the income bracket of 37% does not overlap with W-2 taxes.

Sure, but that's why you'll see that my summary totals aren't just a summation of all the enumerated percentages. The point is to illustrate what the total tax range is at the highest income levels.
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