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Nick Diaz: 'I've never paid taxes in my life, I'm probably gonna go to jail'

5K views 50 replies 35 participants last post by  Joabbuac 
#1 ·
Nick Diaz following UFC 158: 'I've never paid taxes in my life, I'm probably gonna go to jail'


By Brent Brookhouse on Mar 18 2013, 10:00a


Nick Diaz claims he has never paid taxes following his loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 158. Given that he has made roughly $800,000 just in disclosed pay since 2011 (not counting the GSP fight), Diaz could very well be in serious trouble.


Nick Diaz's behavior following his loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 158 has been somewhat predictable. Following a fairly lopsided loss, Diaz once again decided that he should retire. He also spoke in the cage following his loss and at the press conference, saying he didn't want to make excuses, followed by making a list of excuses.

That kind of behavior is expected from Diaz.

What isn't, however, is Nick announcing to the world at the press conference that he's never paid taxes.Here's the quote from our transcript of the post fight presser:


Media Member: "If you don't retire and you do stay with this, it sounds like not being fully happy with your team, where you're at, and if you did stay with this, what would you do? Would you change teams, would you..."




Diaz: "No, I can't be jumpin' teams. I just have to invest a little more...you know, now that I have a little bit more...you know, I've never paid taxes in my life, I'm probably gonna go to jail. (media laughs) That's not because I don't have, that's not because - what, nobody wants to hear about that, nobody wants to hear about that kind of talk, or what's really going on with me. But I might as well just be a kid, you know, I've had fight after fight after fight after fight, you know. You don't know what that does to someone who didn't graduate high school. You don't understand. Everyone has to take that - well, nobody has to do shit, but you can take that into consideration for a second, think about what three fights a year will do to you your whole life. And the only time you have some time off is, like a vacation, everyone's telling you you're this piece of shit, suspended, you know, you ain't fightin' this guy, you ain't fightin' that guy. You're gonna come back and have to dance around with a bunch of hard-hitting people. It's just not...it's just...it's a rough sport."
ESPN had some thoughts from Dana White on the situation:


"At the end of the day, Nick has been in the sport forever. He wanted a shot at the title, he got a shot at the title and he got paid a lot of money for it. What's sad is he better go pay those taxes, a soon as he gets that check."
White said he may speak to Diaz's lawyer to see if he can help.

Here are a list of Diaz's disclosed payouts since 2011:



●vs. Carlos Condit at UFC 143 - $200,000
●vs. B.J. Penn at UFC 137 - $200,000 + $75,000 fight of the night bonus
●vs. Paul Daley at Strikeforce - $175,000
●vs. Cyborg Santos at Strikeforce - $150,000



That's right around $800,000 just in disclosed pay, not counting this weekend's bouts. If Diaz truly has not paid taxes on any of that money, he could be in a world of trouble.

The IRS is also very consistent about going after people who challenge them publicly, so if he hasn't paid, he's almost certainly going to get caught now.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/3/18/4118490/nick-diaz-ufc-158-never-paid-taxes-jail
 
#47 ·
Calm down people, he's being facetious. He's saying he's never filed taxes PERSONALLY.

But OF COURSE, every ORGANIZATION he has ever fought for (UFC, StrikeForce, EliteXC etc.) is obligated to deduct taxes / social security / medicare from his paycheck before he even sees it. He has no say on that. If the orgs aren't doing it for every salary they show on their payroll, they'd be shut down in a minute. In addition, it is unlikely that a guy as controversial as Diaz is getting many endorsements, so that pre-taxed fight org paycheck makes the most of his income right there.

So yes, he is TECHNICALLY telling the truth about never paying taxes himself, but in reality taxes have being going from his side whether he likes it or not.

Note that this is only on declared income such as fight purses and PPV cuts. This does not include locker room cash bonuses, whatever cash he makes on the side from coaching etc., but he would be far from alone in not "declaring" and paying tax on that cash income, if any ... that's the whole point of cash income, most people avoid paying taxes on it... there is essentially no way for the govt. to know about it, track it or tax it when it never enters the banking/credit system and is used for cash transactions.

No he isn't going to jail over this, and yes we can watch him get his ass beat sometime again in the near future.
 
#50 ·
I am not sure this is accurate. I worked as a contractor for almost ten years and paid all my taxes myself, nothing was withheld ( to my dismay, at the end of every fiscal year); it was my responsibility to pay them all on my own. I think fighters tend to fall under this independent contractor category. A number of folks with pro fighters ties over at the UG have said that the UFC fighters aren't (at least, not always) taxed pre-emptively.

That said, I still think Nick was just talking shit, I doubt he even thinks about taxes, he probably has a CPA through Cesar that he doesn't even know exists.
 
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