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【Bitcoin Jesus renounced U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes, only to be pursued for nearly 50000000 USD in expatriation tax years later】

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Bitcoin Jesus Roger Ver, under which the fraud and tax evasion charges against him would be dismissed. In exchange, he must pay up to 49900000 USD in penalties.Roger Ver was among the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, 2011 and in 3000000 USD acquired large quantities of Bitcoin at a cost of less than 2014 In February, to avoid a substantial tax burden, he renounced his U.S. citizenship the month after obtaining citizenship in the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131000 Bitcoin, worth more than 70000000 USD at the then-prevailing price. He had assumed that changing citizenship would put the United States' high tax burden behind him. However, the stringent U.S. expatriation tax thwarted his plans. Under U.S. tax law, qualifying expatriates must treat their worldwide assets as having been sold 1 days before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Although Ver reported and paid 1030000 USD in taxes, he neither reported his personally held Bitcoin nor properly valued his corporate assets, which were substantially undervalued. years later, the Internal Revenue Service established that he had engaged in tax fraud and evasion (which is not subject to a statute of limitations), ultimately requiring him to pay up to 49900000 USD in back taxes, penalties, and interest—an actual recovery 48 times the amount of tax he reported and paid that year.