Quote from: NotLambchop on December 18, 2014, 11:10:08 PM

Quote from: Elliander on December 18, 2014, 10:49:18 PM

...More commonly the penalty for tax evasion is 5 years in prison per count, though sometimes as low as 6 months. It's very easy to get life in prison for failing to pay taxes and this guy got 9 years in prison for not paying up...

You're confusing "maximum sentence" with "most common." Maximum sentences are used in extreme cases. Al Capone got nailed for tax evasion, for instance.
Re. your tabloid link where "this guy" got 9 years for tax evasion: Bro, he wasn't even tried yet.

All I had to go on was publicized cases which is why I listed a range of penalties, but if you guys are serious about not paying taxes there is a LEGAL way to do it. As I mentioned before, you are only subject to Federal Taxes if you live within 20 miles of a federal office building. For this reason wealthy people typically create "tax havens" which basically means that if you buy an address in a country where there is no income tax and list that as your primary address you don't owe any federal taxes. The trick is that if you never spend any time there and have only one US address which is active that can easily dispute that which is why people typically have multiple addresses that they occupy when they do this. The only consequence of using this strategy is that you cannot legally vote in any city or state election if you don't have a primary address there and you can only use an absentee ballot for federal elections since you have no local voting place. You can, however, still fund political campaigns so if you list your primary in the middle of the ocean but really live in an American city you can still be involved, but never completely.

Here is a video talking about it: http://www.icij.org/offshore/video-tax-havens-101-high-cost-offshore

I am personally against tax havens, but I would rather see people go through legal channels to avoid taxes. At least that way it won't bring more bad press for Bitcoin.

If you are moving a rather large amount of money another strategy is to set up a corporation can help. Because shares are stock are not taxed if you get your company to legally pay no or little taxes and then you get paid by your company in the form of shares you can keep your address anywhere you like and won't have to worry about it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leesheppard/2013/05/28/how-does-apple-avoid-taxes/

Or you can try what this lady did: https://sniggle.net/TPL/index5.php?entry=10Sep05

Instead of paying taxes to the IRS, she sends the money to the programs that the IRS claims to fund and then sends a letter to the IRS about it. Of course they were quick to go after her, but since she is actually paying money to support the people in her community it was kept as quiet as possible and proved to be a bit more difficult for the IRS to handle. I am not entirely sure what the overall outcome was, but to the best of my knowledge she never went to prison over it so obviously it works if you have the time to play with the IRS in court.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are consequences in breaking the law, but there are legal ways to avoid taxes. Anyone who thinks they can get away with just not paying taxes and not having a plan is fooling themselves.

Quote from: NotLambchop on December 18, 2014, 11:10:08 PM

TL;DR: Typical tinfoil Bitcoiner tripe.

No need to be rude.