Michael Saylor, a billionaire tech executive and bitcoin enthusiast, was sued by the District of Columbia Attorney General for allegedly evading over $25 million in taxes.
Lawsuit against Saylor and MicroStrategy, the software company he co-founded, alleges he evaded income tax in Washington by claiming to reside in low-tax jurisdictions, either Florida or Virginia , although he lived in the American capital, for more than a decade. . Saylor bragged about his plan to confidants, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit, which was announced Wednesday by DC Attorney General Karl Racine, alleges that MicroStrategy knew Saylor lived in Washington for more than half the year because it had access to his whereabouts information and had conspired to help him evade taxes.
“[T]The company reported to the Internal Revenue Service on Form W-2 for the 2014 through 2021 tax years that Defendant Saylor’s address was that of his home in Florida rather than his actual place of residence,” the lawsuit alleges.
The attorney general’s office said it was seeking to recover unpaid income taxes and penalties from Saylor and MicroStrategy, which it said could total more than $100 million.
Saylor, who stepped down as chief executive this month but is still its executive chairman, has become a major figure in the cryptocurrency world and talks bitcoin regularly.
MicroStrategy said in a statement that the matter was a “personal tax matter” involving Saylor and that the company failed to “oversee his individual tax responsibilities.”
“The District of Columbia’s allegations against the company are false, and we will aggressively defend against this overbreadth,” MicroStrategy said in a statement.
Saylor said he disagrees with the lawsuit and lives in Florida.
The lawsuit is the first filed under the district’s amended Misrepresentation Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report residents who evade taxes by misrepresenting their whereabouts, Racine said. Under the updated law, whistleblowers can collect up to 30% of any recovery.
People who maintain a residence in DC for at least 183 days are required to pay income taxes. In an April 2021 whistleblower lawsuit, which was uncovered on Wednesday, Saylor was charged with failing to pay income taxes from 2014 to 2020.
“DC residents and their employers are now advised that attempts to evade District tax laws by falsely claiming that they reside in another jurisdiction will be investigated and, if true, held. responsible,” Racine said in a statement.
The attorney general’s office said Saylor, whose net worth is estimated at more than $1 billion, had been living in a 7,000-square-foot waterfront penthouse in DC’s Georgetown neighborhood since around 2015. He also docked at least two of his luxury yachts in the district, the office said.
