Buffett's Birkshire Hathaway Owes Taxes Back to 2002
- Thread starter pspr
- Start date
I had to temporarily take Mavrick off ignore to see his comment and can tell you as usual he is wrong
My attorney explained this to me years ago.It is not illegal not to pay taxes as long as you honestly file.Why do you think there are so many people who owe back taxes like Mr Gauthier,Buffet and numerous celebrities
It is illegal to file fraudulent taxes and its illegal to not file taxes but generally they will only file charges against you for not filing taxes as part of a case of filing fraudulent taxes
If you owe back taxes first The IRS will hound you then start to garnish wages and take your property and seize bank accounts but you wont go to jail.Depending on how much you have just making payments will keep them off your back for around 10 years .Many people do this and invest the principle ,sounds like this is what Buffet is doing
If you file fraudulent taxes by lying about your income or amount owed they will come after your ass.2 examples are comedians Redd foxx and actor wesley snipes
Foxx filed his taxes and went years without paying but he still made money doing stand up and acting work.Eventually The IRS took everything he had but he never went to jail
Wesley snipes on the other hand filed fraudulent tax returns lying about income and taxes owed along with not filing taxes and he is in jail
FOXX,not a day in prison because he filed his taxes honestly and just didn't pay
Financial and tax problems
According to People Magazine, "Foxx reportedly once earned $4 million in a single year, but depleted his fortune with a lavish life-style, exacerbated by what he called 'very bad management'". Contributing to his problems was a 1981 divorce settlement of $300,000 paid to his third wife. In 1983 he filed bankruptcy, which proceeding continued at least through 1989.[4]
The IRS filed tax liens against Redd Foxx's property for income taxes he owed for the years 1983 through 1986 totaling $755,166.21. On November 28, 1989, the IRS seized his home in Las Vegas and seven vehicles (including a 1927 Model T, a 1975 Panther J72,[5] a 1983 Zimmer, and a Vespa motor scooter) to pay the taxes which by then had grown to $996,630, including penalties and interest. Agents also seized "$12,769 in cash and a dozen guns, including a semiautomatic pistol," among some 300 items in total, reportedly leaving only Foxx's bed.[6][7][8] Foxx stated that the IRS "took my necklace and the ID bracelet off my wrist and the money out of my pocket . . . I was treated like I wasn't human."[9]
It has been reported that, at the time of his death in 1991, Foxx owed more than $3.6 million in taxes
Snipes,filed fraudulent returns and is now in prison
Federal tax convictions
On October 12, 2006, Wesley Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn, and Douglas P. Rosile were charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371 and one count of knowingly making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States, under 18 U.S.C. § 287 and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Snipes was also charged with six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns by their filing dates under 26 U.S.C. § 7203.[14] The conspiracy charge against Snipes included allegations that he filed a false amended return, including a false tax refund claim of over US$4 million for the year 1996, and a false amended return, including a false tax refund claim of over US$7.3 million for the year 1997. The government alleged that Snipes attempted to obtain fraudulent tax refunds using a tax protester theory called the "861 argument" (essentially, an argument that the domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents is not taxable). The indictment said Snipes used accountants who already had a history of filing false returns to obtain refund payments for their clients.[15] The government also charged that Snipes sent three worthless, fictitious "bills of exchange" to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the amounts of $1,000,000 (on November 30, 2000), $12,000,000 (January 18, 2001), and $1,000,000 (September 10, 2002), each accompanied by an IRS tax payment voucher coupon.[16]
Everybody cant do that because most people have withholding taxes taken out every 2 weeks
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=232163,00.html
These are the rates the government charges interest at. 3% for underpayment and 5% if you are a large corporation.
Heck...maybe next year I wont pay taxes. I'll just pay them the 3% in interest. If I owe $50k in taxes, its better to just pay $1,500 in interest and let the money work for me. And if I ever go belly up,I will just go to one of those IRS lawyers that settle for pennies on the dollar. Its a win/win for me!
I tried doing that one year and putting it off for a little bit, it was after my first real good year of trading, and i decided to leverage the money up and go long a bunch of stuff, it was stupid mistake on my part cause i reall had no system for overnight trading, i just figured i was going to make the money work for me before i gave it away. Anyways i ended up losing a bunch of money that year.
I went to the gas station one day and gased up my car and my bank accounts were all empty. At first i thought i had been the victim of identity theft, i was scared shitless, because i had about 30k in that account. It only took them about 6 months to come in and drain all my accounts, and freeze them. Trust me you do not want these assholes on you. I talked to them and told them that i was an equity trader and that i was negative on the year for almost the same amount i made the previous year, and they didnt give a shit. I ended up having to cash cheques through friends, and physically drive to all the places i owed money for bills. Luckily my next 2 months in the market were pretty good, and i got them out of the way. It is a bad plan to try to spin tax money into profits, owing money to the government is like owing money to the mob, they dont give a shit, i learned my lesson.
I went to the gas station one day and gased up my car and my bank accounts were all empty. At first i thought i had been the victim of identity theft, i was scared shitless, because i had about 30k in that account. It only took them about 6 months to come in and drain all my accounts, and freeze them. Trust me you do not want these assholes on you. I talked to them and told them that i was an equity trader and that i was negative on the year for almost the same amount i made the previous year, and they didnt give a shit. I ended up having to cash cheques through friends, and physically drive to all the places i owed money for bills. Luckily my next 2 months in the market were pretty good, and i got them out of the way. It is a bad plan to try to spin tax money into profits, owing money to the government is like owing money to the mob, they dont give a shit, i learned my lesson.
Range Rover is talking out of his ass. Obviously everyone in the country who pays taxes would do that. If you make a million dollars a year and owe 500k in taxes, no one in their right mind would pay the 500k. They would just pay 15k. They would keep doing that every year till they died and then oops sorry, I'm dead now, can't pay the rest.
There is so much garbage on the internet about the tax patriots and how they get away with not paying taxes by simply filing a tax return. It's complete bullshit, most of them are in prison are running from the IRS.
BTW, when Buffet got caught owing back taxes, it's not because he chose to "underpay". LOL. It's because they made a mistake in what they thought they owed. All tax cheats "make mistakes" on how much they think they owe and our lovely court system gets to decide on "intent" to determine if you are going to spend some time in federal prison.
BTW, when Range Rover said he asked his lawyer about this, he meant his mom.
Here is a little trick that works better if you really want to earn a little more off your account. Dont file your income tax,just file an extension. I did this once some 10 years ago. I Just needed like a few extra days, but they said "Ok, we will give you an extension to file your return by august!" 4 months!