If there’s one thing you don’t want to mess with, it’s the government. Brian Boyd (@briantboyd) is on TikTok, sharing a tax evasion tale about one of his clients who thought he was clever enough to outsmart the IRS.
So, he had a client who was a surgeon, and he just vanished one day. He hadn’t paid taxes since 2004 and owed about $2 million in unpaid taxes because he had gotten divorced and stopped filing tax returns altogether.
He hadn’t wanted to pay any more alimony to his ex-wife or have his child support payments increase.
“Not a great reason, but it’s what he did,” said Brian. “He was a surgeon, and he decided that he would play the system. Here’s what he did. He went and stayed at Indian reservations.”
He figured out that the IRS wouldn’t track him down to the Indian reservations, so that’s where he went to avoid them. When he got paid, he would cash his check there and participate in a little bit of gambling.
Because he was gambling, his dinner and hotel room were often both free. The next day, he got up and went to work like he lived a normal life.
One day, he came to Brian because he finally wanted to get the issues sorted out with the IRS. So, the IRS arranged a meeting with him.
Unfortunately, Brian was unable to accompany him because he was in Texas, and Brian was in Tennessee. Brian called up a colleague of his in San Antonio and asked him to attend the meeting with his client.
However, his client never made it to the meeting. He secretly left the country and disappeared before the IRS could take his passport away.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Brian still had all his tax returns, and his client never paid him for his services. What started as an attempt to dodge alimony and child support payments had snowballed into international disappearance and lifelong consequences.
“Long story short, don’t try to screw over your ex-wife and your kids by not paying taxes and filing your tax returns,” Brian stated. “You’re creating a bigger problem.”
For Brian, it was quite a shock to see how someone intelligent enough to be a surgeon could make such catastrophically poor life decisions.
His actions also hurt his children in the long run.
It may sound like Brian’s client got away with everything, but all it takes is time for the consequences to catch up to you. You can hide for a while, but the IRS will track you down eventually.
And, when it’s finally time to pay the bill you owe, it’s almost always far worse than if you’d just handled it in the first place.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
