Never Miss and IRS Payment
- Thread starter BeerNuts
- Start date
yes, but many who've never tested their XYZ strategy to cut/avoid paying taxes will claim it 'works great' until it's actually tested at which point we'll know if it works at all.
I could have avoided paying taxes for the last 3 years if I simply didn't pay them and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't be audited, but that doesn't seem like a sound strategy.
many of the 'oh just move to _______' people fall into 3 categories:
1) they don't make enough to pop up onto any radar OR make so little that they're literally exempt and playing by the rules (think the first what, 85k or something is a freebie)
2) they've again never tested their strategy
3) they're setup well through tested (and expensive) strategies to REDUCE <significantly> taxes owed legally. However often this doesn't make sense until you're at a revenue level where, of course, you'd already know all about this since people would be handling your money/corporate setups anyway.
just my opinion
back on topic yes, IRS letters are such a PITA to deal with, they write they "hey you owe us an additional $300 on a $200k tax bill" as if it's "I'm GOING TO TAKE YOUR CHILDREN" in tone.
Laughable- but I suppose they know it converts!
But how do they know how much you have earned? You have to tell them first, right? I don't know about the US, but over here it's a "self assessment" system where you just tell the tax office how much you earned (or your employer tells them how much they paid you). If you own your own company, you could (in theory) write down anything which would work great until you got caught.
I heard an excellent scheme one of my co-workers in the UK was using a few years ago. He set up an IT contact and was technically employed by another company that specalised in salary packaging (fairly common in IT contracting), but what they would do is pay him 15% of they money he made as a regular salary (which he paid normal tax on) and then every 2 months they would give him a 'loan', which had to be repaid in 6 months time. The loan was in a depreciating currency (Zimbabwe dollar at the time) so when it came time to repay the loan, you had to pay back the equivalent of $5 or something. The loan wasn't taxed (because you were paying it back), so he effectively paid something like 10% of his gross income in "tax", and most of that was fees to the salary packaging company.
Of course the downside is that you only get 15% (minus tax) of the money you would normally get per week, then get a big lump sum every 2 months.
I thought I was the only one who sweated checking the mail everyday. Everything I do is above board, but I'm always expecting something from the evil three letter agency or a C&D from some douche bag who thinks I stole his latest greatest idea or something.
I love it when all I see is bills in the mailbox. Means I can go another day without having to put a lawyer on retainer.
Yes you do.
More American Expatriates Give Up Citizenship - NYTimes.com
But you can renounce your citizenship and be tax free from US, but no more America for you.
You can totally get away with not paying taxes, sometimes even for years.
Just you end up going to jail and/or getting fined hugely when the IRS catches up with you. And they are only getting better at this as they improve their IT.
Exhibit A: Wesley Snipes
Did some consulting work for a local tax attorney here in town who writes a lot about tax scams and the guys who sell tax avoidance scams on his web site, might be of interest to those who are into that kind of info:
The Tax Prophet | Tax & Trust Scams
And no, I did not design the web site.
Just you end up going to jail and/or getting fined hugely when the IRS catches up with you. And they are only getting better at this as they improve their IT.
Exhibit A: Wesley Snipes
Did some consulting work for a local tax attorney here in town who writes a lot about tax scams and the guys who sell tax avoidance scams on his web site, might be of interest to those who are into that kind of info:
The Tax Prophet | Tax & Trust Scams
And no, I did not design the web site.
I overpay on my taxes. I'd rather have a credit with them, then go out like Capone. Peace of mind is more valuable to me then a fucking watch or a new car.
This. I am always expecting bad news it drives me nuts how paranoid I have become towards the mail. I am not doing anything that could warrant it but I always expect it.