Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Defrauding the Taxpayers, IRS Took Decades to Do Something About It

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 28, 2023

Old Money Blue

Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

IRS Claws Back $122 Million From Wealthy Tax Cheats; Sends Microsoft a $29 Billion Bill.

The US Internal Revenue Service is waking up from its decade long slumber, initiated by the TEA Party revolt and suppressed further still by Donald Trump’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”.

Just a few years ago, Microsoft bragged about how many billions of dollars they were cheating our great nation out of while the government racked up huge deficits thanks to Trump’s “corporate free-for-all” law.

Well, now the shoe is on the other foot, as the IRS has sent Microsoft a $29 billion tax bill.

Microsoft has apparently been really naughty.

Not content with just grifting legally, they were cheating on their taxes and defrauding the IRS for over a decade and a half as well, by funneling profits through Puerto Rico, and basically daring the IRS to do anything about their scheme.

The IRS, according to the Fortune article, was “cowed” for years by the thought of fighting large corporations with endless resources, and wouldn’t do anything about Microsoft until now, even though it knew this was going on as far back as 2005.

Most of the people the IRS usually bothered, under Republican control of the government, were so utterly broke, that they couldn’t resist them, so the IRS combed over single mothers claiming an Earned Income Credit, and left Microsoft’s $29 billion dollar fraud alone.

It’s disgusting that it has taken the IRS this long to grow a spine and go after these criminals.

On a related note, the IRS conducted audits of 1,600 individuals that it believed owed $250,000 or more in back taxes and clawed back $122 million from 100 of them, so far, in an opening salvo under the fresh funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

One of the more shocking cases closed by the IRS in September involved a former CEO, who was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution after he falsified millions of dollars of personal expenses as deductible business expenses.

The rich tax cheat used his unlawful proceeds to build a 51,000-square-foot mansion, featuring an outdoor pool and pool house; and tennis, basketball and bocce courts. His greed didn’t stop there. The IRS found he had falsified millions of dollars of expenses for luxury vehicles, artwork, country club memberships and homes for his children.

Another case targeted a restaurant owner who filed false tax returns and skimmed more than $670,000 from his business. He then spent $502,000 of his illegally obtained funds on gambling.

-AOL

Most people get a year in prison if they slap someone down at the bar, and the guy who defrauded the IRS of $15 million (that they know of) might get out in 6 months with good behavior. Really, all he has to do is pay back what he should have paid in the first place and go to white collar resort prison for a while.

But this is why the rich were panicking about the Inflation Reduction Act, and wanting the American people to think that 87,000 IRS agents would be camped outside their house like the Siege of Waco looking for that $5 they forgot to report last year.

Whenever the IRS is going after the rich, the rich invest in firing up the crazies.

No matter how many times Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says there will be no increased audits of anyone making under $400,000, Fox News will continue to lie.

Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, and others are all under the federal government’s microscope and they all deserve worse, but they will do anything they can to throw a monkey wrench into our government so it breaks down and the looting can speed back up again. Mark my words.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
 
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux FUD From Slopfarms, Blaming Linux for Microsoft Issues; Even WebProNews Has Become a Slopfarm (Googlebombing "Linux" With Slop Images and Fake/Plagiarised Text)
The Web is really getting bad; it's also overwhelmed by fake material or plagiarised material, wherein the plagiarism gets disguised/hidden by LLM sausage factories
Links 03/06/2025: Tiananmen Square Massacre Censorship and Growing Military Activities Around Taiwan
Links for the day
Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
"Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
Windows Falls in Italy as GNU/Linux Jumps to 5%
Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
Nigeria is All Android and Google
Windows down to almost nothing in Africa's largest population
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Second Wave) Not Limited to Redmond
"More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
Gemini Links 03/06/2025: Forth System and "Common Lisp is a Dumpster"
Links for the day
The Leaks Were Right: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in May, Then Another Wave in June
Just as we've been saying for over a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 02, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025
Last Article From Australia's Sam Varghese Was a Year Ago and It Covered the Release of Julian Assange, Who Will Apparently Come Back as 'Politician'
It'll soon be exactly 12 months
Hungary Seems Hungry for Linux
Windows down by a lot
Like in Europe, Bad News for Microsoft in US and Canada
If it loses those "regions", then what's left?
About 8 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 (in Less Than 5 Months), Now Vista 11 "Market Share" Decreases
Really bad news for shareholders of Microsoft
statCounter Sees Bing "Share" Falling Over 0.5% in One Month, Now Lower Than Before the ChatGPT/Bing Chat Hype
Bing has been part of the mass layoffs for quite some time
After Microsoft's Bankruptcy in Russia Android (Linux) Will Dominate Asia Completely
Windows probably peaked in "XP" or "2000"
Microsoft's Demise is a Global Phenomenon
mass layoffs justified using mindless buzzwords
All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux in EU and the UK, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
Combining ChromeOS and GNU/Linux, it adds up to and almost reaches 6%
India: Windows Falls to 50% in Desktops/Laptops and 8% Overall
laptops/desktops fell to 16% of the whole
statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 4.7% "Market Share" This Month
30,000 Microsoft jobs may be eliminated by year's end
Microsoft is in Trouble and Microsofters Know It
"I've been happy on Win 3.11 for years."
[Video] New Introduction to Richard Stallman's Contributions Including GNU Emacs, GNU/Linux, and Software Freedom
from the channel previously bullied for supporting RMS
Links 02/06/2025: South Korea to Vote, Russia Blitzed From Within
Links for the day
Links 02/06/2025: Political Leftovers, DRM, and Patents
Links for the day
Links 02/06/2025: Microsoft Spins Layoffs as "Slop", Frontier Settles Lawsuit
Links for the day
When You Publicly Boast About Wanting to Violently Attack People (Even Colleagues) Finding a Job Will Prove Difficult
there's a lesson to be learned here
The Web We Lost, the Information Lost Due to Microsoft's Attacks on Companies Like Yahoo! (Before the LLM Slop Frenzy)
When it comes to news sites, what can we say?
Covering Corruption in Poland, Including a War on Science (Due to Bad Politicians)
What we're about to show is that skilled and experienced scientists in Poland are besieged by bureaucrats
Gemini Links 02/06/2025: "Star Wars Day" and "Security Day"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 01, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 01, 2025