Not saying this is good or bad. Just saying it’s how it is. Joe Sixpack who fails to report some cash income will almost certainly never see a jail cell.

Using it only on "bad guys" is a recipe for the government punishing people that disagrees with them.

There is no reasonable interpretation of selective enforcement.

Can we get a brit in here to see what their conception of the law is?

"Selecting policing" is just "discretion", that particular phrase is possibly US-centric but the concept itself isn't.

Or is the US the only place that really does that?

Focus on ‘unusual’. All the words in this document have a meaning.

Indeed that's exactly how it is being used if it's true that they throw the book at public figures for making political statements like Wesley Snipes.

Jail is for people who actively dodge taxes, not someone who submitted their taxes a few days late.

Filing late because you made a mistake will cost you interest plus possibly a penalty relating to the amount. Tax evasion is a crime which can lead to jail time. The system will decide which one fits better based on your behavior, including how cooperative you are when they investigate it.

Just like if you hit someone in the head and they die. Maybe you will get charged with murder or maybe they will believe it is an accident. There's really no way to remove these human factors from the justice system.

I'm certainly not excusing his actions (and I'm sure he dodged taxes in many ways), but I have to say that as a Spanish citizen having lived in the US, Ireland, and now Japan, the US tax code is batshit insane.

If US citizenship has a whole lot of advantages that mean you want to keep it, then the price is perfectly clear up front: you are bound to the US tax code.

The tax evasion for which he was indicted covered 2014 through 2018; while there are gaps in the information I can find quickly about his residency, in 2015 he apparently resided in Tennessee (and in 2013 in Oregon). So even if we were to accept that taxation of nonresident citizens was fundamentally illegitimate, that wouldn't invalidate all (possibly not any, again, I can't find any nob-US residency information in the covered period, only once he announced he was on the run from the tax investigation in 2019, and some before 2013.)

And even if all the tax allegations were grounded in illegitimate taxation, there's also the securities fraud charges.

How can topics as complex as transgender rights, or abortion be all boiled into a single digit of information.

And then I'm stealing if I don't consent to a system I by all statistical means have no control over!?

You can also move.

As for McAfee, I would guess he did explore his legal options and they were probably no easier to swallow than the path he took. E.g. personal bankruptcy if he could even afford the taxes before he would be allowed to renounce.

Not sure if "meme" (US civil religion) or "organization" (US government) is the better description of the actor here.

Also a thought about how apparent inconsistencies, or hypocrisy, can sometimes be explained by finding an underlying true "motive" that explains the various "inconsistent" behaviors. (One example: People who are liberal in their adopted country but conservative in their home country, can be understood as simply being self-interested.) Though in this case the "actor" is not really a person, but an organization or memeplex.

> I don't know many people who'd describe the US immigration system as welcoming.

That's a fair point, which undermines the idea. Well, it's debatable, but I get what you mean. Yes: The (blue-state) norms ("welcome everyone!") don't match the reality (actually it's pretty hard). Say, if you're a high-skilled student from India you wait years in a queue; that doesn't seem particularly "welcoming". (On the other hand, it's easy to win the visa lottery if you're from Kazakhstan. I digress.) On a relative scale we might still call the US welcoming though; its identity is much more built around immigration than other countries' identities are, citizenship requirements are much lower than many other "developed" countries, and even the language -- a mishmash of Romance and Germanic, with a phonetic alphabet, inherited from a trading empire -- is easy to use at a basic level (though its inconsistencies do pose problems for mastery), which again helps spread/assimilation. And in the US you at least can't openly act like your country represents a specific genetic/ethnic group (unlike in many other countries, where that identification is tacitly and unapologetically assumed).

It's the "cultural/mimetic dynamics" aspect that was interesting. The "P(A -> B) >> P(B -> A)" thing.

That this is additionally connected to tax revenue is also interesting. Money enters. Which is another fascinating subject.

These things -- populations, memes, capital flows, births, deaths, conversions -- all flow and swirl and transmutate around, like the weather. I am on the lookout for absorbing states.

"Under German law, the maximum term for one count of aggravated tax evasion is 10 years. If an accused is convicted of more than one count, the court can increase the maximum to 15 years."

The US is 5 years for each count, half of Germany's.

Macafee was under accused of multiple crimes, which added up to the headline figure of 30 years.

If he had been German it would have 60 years for those same multiple crimes.

The USA is similar, sentences are often served concurrently meaning the headline numbers don’t get added up. Headlines reflect the absolute maximum penalties but there’s something called the Sentencing Guidelines that is used to set the actual length of the sentences and whether they are concurrent. https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/introducing-guidelines-app

But which are, as the name suggests, “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”

Still, a better measure of likely sentence than naively adding up statutory maxima for individual counts.

Perhaps, but prosecutors don’t unilaterally set sentences, and neither of those are either guidelines factors or things that you can cite to get a trial court to depart from (and an appeals court to uphold departure from) the guidelines.

That would be an example for someone punished lightly. If you and I did this it would be near maximum possible. Some people are more equal.

You and me would be smart enough to hire lawyers that can file a proper „Selbstanzeige“ according to §371 Abgabenordnung, which would prevent us from going to jail altogether ;-)

Because that strikes me as more dysfunctional, where people are getting preferential treatment because they're part of the German footie machine.

- People imprisoned for violent crimes may stay there for their whole life if they pose an ongoing threat to public safety.

So... Germany DOES have a life sentence. Kinda misleading to state it doesn't.

However we also have "forvaring", or detention, which is locking someone up to protect the public.

If you're sentenced to "forvaring", you're not let go at the end. Instead a commission will review your case and behavior, and determine if the "forvaring" needs to be extended or not. So while you can't get more than 11 years (IIRC) at a time, the sentence can be extended indefinitely.

The important point is that "forvaring" isn't mean to be a punishment, although I assume it might certainly feel like it. It's meant to protect the public from a dangerous individual.

Nope. That's nonsense. Contrary to other countries, prison time isn't added on a per-conviction basis in Germany. There's maximum prison time per crime (in this case: 15 years) and that's that.

Plea bargains are horrendous and really should be banned or made extremely rare.

I'm not against that, mind you, I'm just saying that you are proposing a massive sea change in the legal system. Everything about the recommended sentencing to basic questions like "what incentives can we offer to flip on someone" would need to be completely rethought.

Which you can't even do for the last year+, since all the embassies are closed to renunciations indefinitely.

When the catch up to you, you are going away for a long time.

A common misconception. The United States takes the constitution seriously, but doesn’t even rank in the top 15 countries according to most freedom indexes.

https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...

The tldr is that the maximum sentence of all the crimes added up has very little to do with what most people would actually face.

(take that as an abstract comment, I have no view or knowledge on McAfee and his personal tax affairs)

I'm in the US. It's purely Orwellian double speak.

Also note that there is a minimum amount of income that you always will be granted access to ('Pfändungsfreigrenze'), so a fine will not make you die from hunger nor make you homeless.

Not only did he die in prison, but he was banned from selling his books.

Ironically it does not apply to corporations that fail to pay billions in tax.

It's not that someone is tax resident of different country.

The disgusting part of this IRS racket is that US forces people to pay taxes to US even if they no longer live there. Eritrea is the only another one like US in this aspect.

I knew this was a thing, but I had always assumed a US citizen living abroad only ended up paying tax to the IRS if the tax they paid to the foreign government was less than what they would have paid to the US, and only the difference is paid.

But it seems that’s not the case, and you get an exemption for “only” the first $108,700 of your earnings.

As with everything the IRS does, it seems complex and full of exemptions, but I have read that (badically) correctly? You could end you being double taxed if you earn more than that?

I can't remember if the amount was exempted under $108,700 but I don't think it was given how mad he was that he closed the account because the paper work wasn't work dealing with.

My dad's friend told me a horror story about his friend's mom who was born in the US while he parents were on vacation but she never lived there. The mother is currently retired and is collecting a pension, then she got a letter from the IRS saying that she owed back taxes because she's a US citizen and never filed.

Most unlikely, that's an earned income exemption. So basically salary or say invoices paid for consulting that year when the work was performed while physically on foreign soil (US taxes you 100% for any work done on the seas or in international air space)

What kind of state sponsored racket is this?

However, given that the global consensus is to tax by residence, the US should absolutely change its policy to avoid the hassles due to this inconsistency.

Also keep in mind that you can write off any taxes paid to a foreign government so it's really just a tax on those who make lots of money in low-tax jurisdictions.

Being a non-citizen in the country I live means I am at the end of the queue for vaccination, while the US State Dept says it won't arrange for vaccinations of US expats, but countries like France and China are doing it for their citizens.

I can't maintain a bank account in the US because without a US mailing address the banks simply refuse to provide me services. The US government could care less, has no requirement that banks provide services to US citizens overseas.

And China, in theory and sometimes in practice.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-10/china-sta...

I'm not sure why the US thinks it is so special that it is entitled to tax people who happen to be born there even if they have nothing to do with the country any more. You aren't taking a loan on taxes during your childhood; that period is sponsored by everyone else. It goes both ways.

State income taxes are usually pretty low.

Texas and Florida don't have an income tax.

Georgia ranges from 1% to 5.5%.

California goes all the way up to 13%.

In NYC, earning about $100k a year, the effective rate is ~28% tax (ie, you pay $28k tax a year), including federal (~15%) and state (~5%), social security etc.

In the UK, for £100k, it looks like it’s 27.4%.

So very similar levels.

So you pay zero on the first £12,570 of earnings. Basic rate of 20% from £12,571 to £50,270 of earnings. And then 40% on £50,271 onwards.

(We have additional rate over £150,000 of 45%).

It's important to remember you don't pay a flat %age on your income. It's worked out as a precentage of income you earn inside the thresholds

You also forget a major part of tax levied on workers but not on owners - national insurance.

That doesn't include VAT (or whatever it's called in America), tariffs, excise duties though, does it? It'd be curious to see a comparison between countries that would cover all those things (like how much you earn, and how much you actually pay for some average set of goods).

# Federal

  * Long Term Capital Gains Tax         = 20%

  * Short Term Capital Gains Tax        = 37%

  * Earned Income / Ordinary Income Tax = 37%

  * Net Investment Income Tax           = 3.8%

  * Medicare Payroll Tax (W-2 Wages)    = 1.45%

  * Additional Medicare Tax (W-2 Wages) = 0.9%

  * CA State Income Tax                 = 12.3%

  * CA Mental Health Tax                = 1%

It seems like the US were (compared to the rest of the world) at their best from 1860ish to 1970ish. When they had great education for he masses, public health, technological and economic progress, a certain naive idealism, and the most comfortable middle class in the world. Things were, if not already good, pointing in the right direction. After that, selfish and cynical elites took over and society stagnated and fragmented.

The US had the or one of the best fed, healthiest, best educated populations in the world around 1900. That was a clear success and it didn't start then.

Germany max is 10 years BTW, at least google before you post bullshit.