- Karl Racine, Attorney General of the District of Columbia (DC) announced that he would be suing MicroStrategy as well as its co-founder, Michael Saylor.
- Saylor would have claimed to live in Florida, however, he lived in DC.
- “With this lawsuit, we are warning residents and employers who do enjoy all the benefits of living in our great city and refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, we will hold them accountable.”
Karl Racine, Attorney General of the District of Columbia (DC) announced that he would be suing MicroStrategy as well as its co-founder, Michael Saylor.
Racine accuses Saylor of failing to meet his tax obligations while living in DC, and that his company helped the businessman evade taxes. This was announced by the attorney general through a Twitter thread on August 31.
NEW: Today, we’re suing Michael Saylor – a billionaire tech executive who has lived in the District for more than a decade but has never paid any DC income taxes – for tax fraud.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) August 31, 2022
Today we are suing Michael Saylor, a billionaire tech executive who has lived in the District for more than a decade but has never paid any DC income taxes, for tax fraud.”
“We are also suing his company, MicroStrategy, for conspiring to help him evade taxes he legally owes on the hundreds of millions of dollars he has earned while living in DC.”
In the thread, Racine notes that this is the first lawsuit to be filed under DC’s recently amended False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to target residents who evade tax laws by “misrepresenting their residency.”
According to the lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Saylor would have claimed to live in Florida, which is a state with no personal income taxes, however, he lived in DC. To accomplish this, they argue Saylor obtained a driver’s license and registered to vote in the state of Florida, while he maintained his home in DC “for at least 183 days in subsequent fiscal years.”
For the plaintiffs, Saylor’s company, MicroStrategy, helped him avoid paying income taxes in the district and claimed that the company was aware of Saylor’s false claims of Florida residency. The lawsuit reads:
“Defendant MicroStrategy knew that Saylor was in fact a resident of the District, but instead of accurately reporting his address to federal, local, and taxing authorities and properly withholding District taxes, the company conspired with defendant Saylor to facilitate their tax evasion scheme.”
Finally, at the time of writing this article, Saylor has not issued any comments regarding this topic. For his part, Racine concluded on Twitter by expressing:
“With this lawsuit, we are warning residents and employers who do enjoy all the benefits of living in our great city and refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, we will hold them accountable.”
