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BahRamYou  11mo ago (lesswrong.com)   Edited 11mo ago   2310 thread views

Thoughts on the LessWrong "don't pay taxes" post?

lesswrong.com

There was a recent post on lesswrong, which also got highlighted on AC10, that struck my interest. It claimed that he had been avoiding taxes for 20 years through "one simple trick:" filing, but not actually paying them. The idea is that the IRS is so small and incompetent that they basically won't do anything against this sort of passive resistance.

Is this too good to be true? I'm not any sort of "effective altruist," I just don't want to pay taxes. And as it happens, I have a lot of capital gains income this year. According to the rules, I'm supposed to write the IRS a big check by Jan 15 for "estimated taxes." I can afford it, but it would make my life better to keep that money for myself. Can I just... not...? This feels like a real Matrix, red pill moment-

"You're telling me that I can dodge taxes?" "No. I'm telling you that when the time comes- you won't have to."

Then again... I really, really don't want to go to prison. even just getting my passport suspended would be a major hassle. And the guy who wrote that post seems like a real hippy... no bank account and no salary income??? how does he live?

Perhaps it would be better to set up a shady small business and claim all sorts of vague tax deductions. Thoughts on this?

btw: long time lurker, first time poster. I'm asking here because you seem like people who are smart, outside-the-box, and not simps for the government.

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So, if I don't claim the EITC i'm set?

The reason that is audited is because it is often just straight up easily proved fraud. Rich people frequently take gray positions which means (1) the field agent auditing has to be smart enough to understand the issue, (2) the Service has to agree that the tax position is against the law, (3) the Service has to believe pretty strongly they won’t lose in court (because if they do, then it opens the flood gates) and (4) the time and effort is worth the funds.

did you read the original post that's linked in the title? dude was claiming taxes and just not paying them. It's about the simplest "fraud" you can get.

And my point is OP will (if he isn’t lying about the whole thing m) get caught and fucked.

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