How to loose 20000 USD with the help of Darwin Tomsen and Linden Lab

I was referring to your comment of : "You know how much those babies are worth??"

That won't apply after May 1st.

Ah with you, yes if he's trying to claim ownership then that would be the case.

Yes I know that, but his aim was to retain control of the islands (I bet if you had asked him 2 months ago, he would of said he owned them, and that one day he would sell them) and continue to make money, its a well known way of defrauding the tax department (not in SL, in other ways).

Technically he did not break the law, but in doing so he had to rely on another crook to do it, and you know what they say about trusting crooks....

Lol, missed that.

I can't see any difference between this situation and the case of anybody else who "owns" estate land which they "bought" from another resident to whom they pay "tier". It's risky, as the OP found out, but it doesn't make either the "buyer" or "seller" a crook.

I think what Mitzy is trying to say is that if someone wants the benefits of not paying VAT then they have to accept they are no longer the owner of the sim.

That may be according to LL rules, but not according to the law.

I can enter into a binding legal agreement with you to buy a sim from LL, and pay the price and the tier jointly.

As far as LL is concerned there can only be one owner, not joint owners, but that does not change the legal situation. If one partner screws the other, and there is a written agreement, then the injured party can sue.

If the OP had an agreement, and that is captured in chat logs or IMs, or Notecards, then those could be used to sue, if she wanted to take it that far.

If those two people were from the US and Europe, then it would make sound tax sense to have them in the name of the US-based partner. Being tax efficient is not the same as tax avoidance and certainly does not qualify for the title of 'crook'.

Rock

It's not that simple since by how the OP describes it. It doesn't sound like a partnership as much as a strawman purchase.

I happen to own a small piece of land in one of the aforementioned sims. I have found Darwin to be more than fair in making sure the residents are not the ones who suffer as a result of all this. Instead of spending time whining about what was done in a forum, He is working very diligently to ensure residents are informed of what has happened, and taking the steps necessary to make sure that no one continues to pay tiers to people who do not forward them on.
He is honouring what everyone had paid up, at his own cost.

Comes down in my humble opinion to the fact that words are hollow, they are simply words on a screen, actions do the talking

Tax avoidance is fine and legal, unless governments pass retrospective legislation, which is itself arguably illegal.

Pep (Tax evasion is what is illegal.)