- McAfee says he hasn’t filed a single tax return for 8 years now
- Claims that he’s a prime target for the IRS
John McAfee, the eccentric cybersecurity leader turned crypto enthusiast has made it a habit to be in the spotlight for controversial reasons. McAfee, the man who created the world-renowned “McAfee” antivirus has always had a bad reputation of getting in trouble on twitter. In a recent tweet storm, McAfee trashed the IRS saying he hasn’t filed a single tax return since the last 8 years. On January 4, 2019, McAfee in his tweet claimed that his net come is negative and that he lives off his funds from “McAfee Inc.” yet he is still a prime target of the IRS.
I have not filed a tax return for 8 years. Why? 1: taxation is illegal. 2: I paid tens of millions already and received Jack Shit in services. 3. I'm done making money. I live off of cash from McAfee Inc. My net income is negative. But i am a prime target for the IRS. Here I am.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 3, 2019
He further stated the reason he’s furious:
- “Taxation is illegal.”
- “I paid tens and millions already and received Jack Sh*t in services.”
- “I’m done making money.”
He challenged the IRS furthermore in another tweet claiming that he’s been ready all his life for this battle. A few hours earlier he also stated that “Taxation is theft. It is Unconstitutional”. He explains that prior to the civil war there was no taxation but yet the country managed well. He later went on talking about how the IRS has been “Destroying us” in another straightforward tweet.
Controversial Past of McAfee
McAfee isn’t so new to cyber rampage. Previously, back in May 2018, McAfee had to apologize because one of the ICO’s he endorsed had plagiarized its website content and white paper from another already existing ICO. The man is known to charge a whopping $105,000 for a single tweet, so he’s often considered a ‘paid shill’ in the words of the crypto community. He even once said that he’ll be running for president in 2020 but later admitted it was just a bizarre stunt and he’d only be promoting crypto in his campaign.
McAfee isn’t the only one who is against crypto and taxation going side by side. Former US congressman “Ron Paul” previously had requested the ‘Federal Reserve’ to make all cryptocurrencies transactions tax free. Paul said that people must use alternative currencies like Bitcoin to avoid Fed-created recessions.
The IRS, however, thinks otherwise. The IRS has stated that investors who have invested in crypto must pay taxes based on their gains. Crypto exchange giant Coinbase was ordered to send all its users a notice. A lot of the users weren’t comfortable with the fact the IRS had access to their account records. A majority of the crypto community believes that crypto should be tax-free and was not pleased with IRS’s decision. Reportedly, McAfee isn’t the only one unwilling to pay his taxes, a significant amount of crypto influencers have shown their displeasure towards the IRS.
