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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Notes -
Transparently terrible idea with a horrible risk-reward tradeoff. Oh, cool, I might be able to avoid a few hundred grand in taxes. What's the downside? Oh, they might seize millions in assets and put me in prison. That seems bad! Seriously, how low would the chance of facing those consequences need to be for it to make sense to take that tradeoff? For me, less than one percent, for sure. I don't need the money from my taxes, it would only change my life marginally, but the downsides are literal life-ruiners.
This pro tip is just about on par with sovereign citizens informing the police that they're not driving, they're traveling.
"Picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer," is the phrase that came to mind when reading your comment.
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