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Who is John McAfee and Why Doesn’t he Pay His Taxes?
As far as controversial figures go, cryptocurrency has no shortage of them. One in particular completely takes the cake. If you haven’t heard of John McAfee, buckle up, because you’re in for a ride. John McAfee is a long term supporter of new technologies, and a pioneer of antivirus software. Naturally, cryptocurrencies fit with his ethos of privacy preserving software. Although active in the cryptocurrency community for some time, his rise to prominence came in 2017. A series of egregious tweets predicting the price of Bitcoin put a massive amount of media attention on both McAfee, and Bitcoin. On October 5th, McAfee was arrested in Spain on charges of tax avoidance, and the promotion of illegitimate cryptocurrency projects.
McAfee says Taxes are Theft
One of the more controversial opinions espoused by McAfee is that taxes are illegal. McAfee has boasted that he hasn’t paid taxes since 2010. This is just unwise for a public figure of any renown to do. This relates back to cryptocurrency in a couple of ways. There is an undercurrent of thought within the cryptocurrency community that you can avoid taxes by putting your money in cryptocurrency. For all intents and purposes, this is untrue. If you are holding, trading, sending, and dealing with cryptocurrencies, you still need to comply with your governments taxes. This can be a really tough thing to do, unless you’re completely on top of all of your records. As service like Koinly makes keeping track of your crypto taxes much easier.
When it comes to McAfee talking about taxes, he is likely trying to rouse the renegade part of the cryptosphere. McAfee is known as a provocateur, someone who says outrageous things to get people’s attention. When it comes to avoiding taxes by keeping your money in crypto, McAfee is probably just outright wrong. We digress to the old saying about taxes, with a slight modification. “Nothing is certain, except death, taxes, and 21 million bitcoin.”
McAfee’s $1 Million Bitcoin Price Prediction
In the crypto community, McAfee is best known for his December 2020 price prediction of Bitcoin at $1 million each. McAfee was so confident about this prediction that he offered an ultimatum in the event the price didn’t come true. McAfee said he would eat one of his most prized body parts on television if Bitcoin didn’t reach $1 Million by December 2020. He has since reneged on this prediction, stating it was all a rouse to pump the price of bitcoin. If you ask him, he’d say it worked. In the time since 2017, McAfee has tried to launch his own privacy based cryptocurrency called ghost. He has ironically “ghosted” his own project, and left the whatever leadership position he briefly held there.
John McAfee is All Over the Place, But Might Soon Be In Jail
McAfee’s crazy career may soon come to an end. The details are not yet released to the public, but what we do know is that he was arrested in Spain on October 5th. The main charge is tax evasion. He is cited to have made more than $20 million endorsing, promoting, and speaking about a variety of cryptocurrency projects. Some or all of this income has not had tax paid on it, otherwise the IRS would not be pursuing an extradition from Spain. McAfee is 75 years old now, having had a mildly successful career in software development and entrepreneurship. Maybe it is time for John McAfee to settle down, pay his taxes, and retire with his fortune of bitcoin.
