If things seem a little fuzzy this morning, maybe it’s because you had an evening like mine. How can I adequately convey the chaos and drunkenness of drinking wines, beers, and bourbons until the wee hours? With SP, webdominatrix, JW, Swiss Servator, and SugarFree? Something like this conveys the basic idea.
It’s a Lynch mob. My money is on “lots of posturing, then one more corrupt Obama insider will skate without consequences.”
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. HOPEFULLY UPS AND DOWNS ZARDOZ HAS HAD LATELY ARE FINISHED. ZARDOZ HAS RETURNED TO GRAIN DELIVERY BUSINESS. MOSTLY WITH BRUTALS RUNNING IOWA CORN FARM CO-OPS. THIS SHOULD PROVIDE STABILITY ZARDOZ CRAVES.
ZARDOZ ALSO IS BACK TO PROVIDING LINKS FOR HIS CHOSEN ONES:
TROUBLE IN SPORTSBALL LAND. ZARDOZ COULD LOAN PRC SOME BRUTAL ENFORCERS IF NEEDED.
IF BRUTAL COMMENTERS EVER GET TO CITY OF BROAD SHOULDERS, DO TAKE TIME TO ENJOY RIVER.
ZARDOZ DOES NOT UNDERSTAND BRUTALS SOMETIMES. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY DO ACTIVITIES SUCH AS THIS.
ZARDOZ THINKS ENGLISH UPPER CRUST SHOULD FIGHT HARDER.
ZARDOZ HOPES ALL BRUTAL COMMENTERS HAVE A GOOD NIGHT.
So, confession time: It is more difficult to keep up a weekly column than I originally thought it would be. When I took this on, I noticed that many of the weekly columns had burned out, and I decided to show these layabouts what a real weekly column looked like. None of this ‘three or four articles and then I’m done’ garbage. Firearms Friday would become a cornerstone of the Glibertarian community; A stalwart pillar representing the foundation of our proud website. Well, to those I privately disparaged, I apologize. It is not as easy to keep up a regular article as I anticipated, even one that has as much depth and variety as a gun themed screed. Nevertheless, I will persist with this as long as I can manage, which means you are stuck with me for the time being. This week, by popular demand, I will look into the business of making your own firearms yourself. Much hullabaloo has been raised and many gallons of digital ink spilled in reference to DIY guns, namely 3D printed guns and so called 80% receivers. Most of this ink has been accompanied by an equally copious amount of feces lining the panties of the writers of these various articles over the idea that anyone, ANYONE AT ALL, could build their own functional firearm in the comfort of their own home or garage with just a few simple tools or an inexpensive printer and a roll of plastic filament. Well, I am going start out up front with some bad news: you aren’t going to pop a working M60 out of your makerbot anytime soon, or probably ever.
Complete lower on top, 80% lower on bottom.
Before I drop too many turds into this 3D printed punch bowl (so far this article has enough poop references to be a SugarFree piece) lets back up a bit and define some of these ideas more clearly. First off: What makes a gun a gun? Obviously it requires a specific quantity and type of parts as well as certain mechanical abilities, but at what point is it no longer just a pile of steel and wood? Legally, in America a gun is defined as the part designated as the frame or receiver. Every other part of the gun, including the barrel, trigger, stock, etc. is merely a part and can be bought and sold as freely as a toaster. The receiver, however, is always considered a firearm regardless of it’s functionality. It must be engraved with a unique serial number and is subject to all rules and regulations regarding working firearms. This means that you can buy all of the parts necessary to build a gun without any sort of paperwork or background check, except for the receiver which must be purchased either from a gun store (thus requiring a background check) or face to face from another resident of your home state (subject to local restrictions). At some point, some wise ass got to building a receiver, stopped before he drilled the last hole, and said “So this doesn’t count as a gun, right? LOL!” This pissed the ATF off, I’m sure, at which point they declared that almost a receiver IS a receiver, and then probably shot the guy’s dog. Well eventually people started asking questions about this ‘almost a receiver’ crap. Is a halfway finished receiver still a gun? How about a solid block of raw billet? The ATF realized they needed a concrete point at which a receiver was actually considered a firearm. They came out with a set of guidelines concerning what machining and manufacturing operations constituted a finished receiver, and guns meeting this definition were considered ‘finished’. You can take a piece of metal up to that point and it’s still just a piece of metal, but if you go one cunt hair over that line it is considered a receiver and you better have your papers in order. This is known as the 80% rule (considering most guns are black they probably should have called it the 4/5ths rule) and it is where the term ‘80% receiver’ comes from. By far the most common 80% receivers are for AR 15s, but you can also get them for AKs, 1911s, Glocks, and a whole slew of other guns.
An 80% lower in a jig. The jig is used as a guide for correct hole placement and pocket depth.
So what does this mean for you? Well, it means you can buy one of these 80% receivers, finish it at home using a mill and/or other tools, buy the rest of the parts online, and build yourself a working baby killing death machine without any kind of background check or paper trail. At least, that’s what some people with an above average supply of tinfoil say. I personally am not so sure (more on that later). Confession #2, I have absolutely no working experience with 80% lowers or 3D printed firearms. I do, however, have some experience with CNC milling and additive manufacturing (3D printing), so I am aware of what is involved and what each is capable of. There are 2 common materials used in 80% AR lowers: polymer and aluminum. Polymer is not as strong or as stiff but is much lighter and much easier to shape. Polymer80 is the most well known of polymer AR lowers, and they sell a kit which will let you make a polymer lower using a drill press and a dremel. They also make 80% Glock frames as well. The other option is aluminum. Aluminum is much stronger but also heavier and not as forgiving to machine. 80% Arms has a kit for finishing an aluminum lower using a routing tool commonly used for woodworking. If you already have one then this is probably your best bet, or you can pick one up for about $80. An aluminum lower is going to take much longer to complete than a polymer one, but the end result should be much better quality. The initial cost for these kits are relatively high, but once you have them you can purchase more 80% lowers for cheap and finish them up for essentially free.
Cody Wilson: American Hero
The big problem, however, is that these kits take a) time, b) a workspace, and c) a modicum of skill. Some people lack one or more of these items, making an 80% build problematic. Fortunately, there is a solution. For those of you on here who have not heard of Cody Wilson, shame on you. Turn your libertarian card in at the door, you just failed the purity test. Cody Wilson is basically the ancap equivalent of Che Guevara. At the age of 24, he founded a company called Defense Distributed. I am pretty sure he picked that name only because ‘Fuck the Police’ was already being used. His first order of business was to develop and release CAD models of a fully functional 3D printed handgun called the liberator, which I will discuss a little later. This caused such an uproar that the government forcibly took down and banned the files, citing ITAR infringement. He is currently suing the state department over the matter. Not one to rest on his laurels, he started his next big project, called the ghost gunner. The name comes from the term ‘ghost gun’, which California state senator Kevin De Leon made famous in a hilariously incoherent cringe inducing speech he made on the subject. The ghost gunner is a purpose built CNC mill specifically designed to machine AR lowers. Simply drop in an 80% lower of your choice, push a few buttons, and in about 2 hours a finished, working AR lower pops out. For a mere $1500, you too can crank out as many unregistered, untraceable AR lowers as your little heart desires. If $1500 seems a bit steep, I can assure you it is a pittance compared to what a traditional CNC mill will run, and the added software which makes finishing lowers as easy as running your microwave is a nice bonus.
Kevin De Leon: Pants on head retarded.
I can already hear some of (((you))) now “$1500?! I can’t afford that! Isn’t there a cheaper way of doing it?” I’m glad you asked. For those of you that can’t afford the wonderful ghost gunner mentioned above, there is a slightly more economical option. With a suitable 3D printer and good quality polymer, you can, in fact, print an AR lower. There are working examples on the internet, and a decent 3D printer runs in the $200-$500 range. Now, don’t think it’s going to be as simple as pushing a button, or that you will get a working lower on your first try. I know from my experience with 3D printing that it is usually a trial and error process, and that it takes a very long time to print anything. Don’t expect to it to look great or be terribly durable either. I expect no more than a few thousand rounds out of a printed lower, tops. It does work however, and if you break it you can always print another one.
This is a working metal 3D printed gun. It costs about $12,000 each. And yes, they named it ‘Reason’.
But there is a flaw with all of this. Ostensibly the point of making your own gun is to keep da gubmint from knowing about your ballistic proclivities. But does making an AR lower yourself actually do that? Technically Uncle Sugar is forbidden from maintaining a database of firearms purchases. I highly doubt anyone here actually believes that they do not, myself included. If we concede that the government is willing to break its own explicit laws to keep track of gun owners, however, then our logic eats itself. Remember that these lowers are not functional firearms themselves. You still have to buy quite a few components and assemble them. Unless you pay cash (or bitcoin) for every part of your gun and all of your ammo, then you’re already on the list. What about 3D printing, you ask. What about it? The only working gun that I am familiar with that can be 100% printed is the liberator, which is a single shot 380 pistol with no rifling. Half the time these explode when they are fired…. not exactly military grade. There are metal 3D printers, but they are hundreds of thousands of dollars and you can’t simply order one off of Amazon. In short, 3D printing is simply not a viable strategy for building a working gun, at least at the moment.
So, if you’re doing this to try to stay below the radar, then you’re probably better off simply buying a gun off of armslist from a private seller. If, however, you’re doing it cause you’re worried about a gun ban at some point down the road and you want your instruments of insurrection… well, you’re still boned, because I really doubt you’re going to be able to run down to Cabelas and pick up a lower parts kit and a barreled upper, no matter how many lowers you crank out. If you’re just doing it for funsies and to put a middle finger to the law, then have at it, my devious little anarchists! There is way too much ground to cover on this one topic in just a short article like this, so I highly recommend you do your own research if you’re interested in making your own guns.
The future is steel…. and about 4 inches long.
Before I go, there is one upcoming product that I do want to mention, because I believe it is going to have a serious impact on the future of 80% firearms. Most of you are familiar with the Sig P320, but for those that are not, it is a striker fired handgun that was recently selected as the new issue sidearm for the US army, and probably all of the military will be issuing it in a few years. What makes the P320 unique is that the registered part of the gun, the part that makes it a gun, is not the frame. The P320 is built on a removable stamped steel chassis that allows you to change out grips and slides quickly and easily with no tools. You can switch out a broken frame for a new one in the field, or simply change your full sized pistol into a compact or subcompact one in a few minutes. A company called Ghost Guns (notice a pattern?) recently announced that they are releasing an 80% receiver for the P320. This has vast implications for a multitude of reasons. First off, the receiver of a P320 is remarkably simple. From looking at the videos released by ghost guns, a person should be able to finish a P320 80% lower with nothing more than a file and a hand drill, something most people already have and almost anyone can afford. Secondly, because the fire control group is removable as a single unit, that means that there is nothing limiting the chassis from being used in other guns. Imagine if a company released a rifle body that took AR magazines and used the P320 chassis as the trigger. Someone could buy one of these 80% kits, make themselves a P320 chassis, then install it into this rifle and have a working fighting gun, without ever doing a background check or even leaving the house. That is just one possibility for this system. I believe that we could be seeing the beginning of a whole new future for firearms development, and it is quite an exciting prospect.
I slammed together a few links for you all. I have important beer drinking to attend, so any complaints about the quality of links is probably warranted. Here they are, judge for yourself.
I am shocked, shocked to find people might be afraid to testify against the Teamsters!
The British governmental system NEVER loses perspective! NEVER!!!
Thomas Lurting was an experienced seaman from Liverpool, England who converted to Quakerism while serving on a warship during one of Oliver Cromwell’s wars in the 1650s.
The brand-new Quaker movement hadn’t formally adopted a declaration of pacifism – Quakers were all over the map, some of them refusing to join in wars because of a literal application of the Sermon on the Mount, and others serving in Cromwell’s army and even upbraiding Cromwell for not being righteous enough to achieve more military victories – as Quaker leader George Fox wrote in 1658:
Oliver, hadst thou been faithful and thundered down the deceit, the Hollander had been thy subject and tributary, Germany had given up to have done thy will, and the Spaniard had quivered like a dry leaf wanting the virtue of God, the King of France should have bowed his neck under thee, the Pope should have withered as in winter, the Turk in all his fatness should have smoked, thou shouldst not have stood trifling about small things, but minded the work of the Lord as He began with thee at first … Let thy soldiers go forth… that thou may rock nations as a cradle.
A prowar Quaker? Now I’ve seen everything!
Lurting started out as one of the warlike Quakers, but he switched from the prowar position to the pacifist position in the middle of a battle, deciding that God didn’t want Christians to kill people. So after somehow avoiding a hanging, Lurting left the Navy and continued his seafaring career as a merchant seaman. After the Restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s, the British Navy kept trying to draft (“impress”) Lurting off of his merchant vessels, but he kept refusing to serve, and they let him go rather than endure his inflexible and troublesome conscience.
In the interim, George Fox had switched to a more peaceful tone as he tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade the new royal regime that Quakers were loyal subjects. Far from plotting against the King, Fox and other Quaker leaders insisted, Quakers were, and had always, been, pacifists:
…our weapons are spiritual and not carnal, yet mighty through God to the plucking down of the strongholds of Satan, who is author of wars, fighting, murder, and plots. And our swords are broken until ploughshares and spears into pruning; hooks, as prophesied of in Micah iv. Therefore we cannot learn war any more, neither rise up against nation or kingdom with outward weapons, though you have numbered us among the transgressors and plotters. The Lord knows our innocency herein, and will plead our cause with all men and people upon earth at the day of their judgement, when all men shall have a reward according to their works…
This statement was influential enough to establish pacifism as a norm among Quakers for the time being.
“We’re not flip-flopping – we’ve always been not-at-war with Eastasia.”
On one of his merchant voyages in the 1660s, Lurting was mate under Captain George Pattison, who was sailing in the southern Mediterranean. Lurting had a premonition that their merchant ship would be captured by Algerian pirates, whom Lurting called “Turks” because of their nominal allegiance to the Muslim Turkish Sultan. Algerian pirates were in the habit of seizing European ships (or even conducting coastal raids) and enslaving Europeans. The captain pooh-poohed this possibility, so as the rules of drama require, they were, in fact, captured by Algerians. Lurting says he was no longer anxious, because he believed God would deliver them all from the “Turks.”
Lorenzo A. Castro, “A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs”
Lurting’s advice to the men was to comply with the Algerines’ demands and satisfy the pirates of their docility, thus lulling them into a false sense of security. Contrary to the wishes of some of the men, Lurting did not want to kill any of the pirates – such a thing would be un-Christian. Indeed, Lurting would rather be a slave in Algiers than be a killer, and he threatened to tell their captors if any of the sailors made any murderous attempt.
Lurting recovered the ship by a ruse, luring the pirates into the ship’s cabins on a rainy night, where the pirates fell into sleep and woke up to find their weapons seized and and in the hands of Lurting and his party (except their concealed daggers, which Lurting wasn’t aware of until later) . Then Pattison and Lurting turned the ship toward the Spanish island of Majorca (or Mallorca).
Majorca
The Algerians were very unhappy, since the Spanish, if they got hold of the pirates, would enslave them – and these Algerines had signed up as enslavers, not as slaves.
“Look, when we said we wanted to get to a slave market, we meant the one in Algiers.”
Lurting, perhaps on account of his Quaker beliefs, or perhaps because of his and Pattison’s English abhorrence of turning anyone over to the despised Spaniards, decided to hide the Algerines in the ship while it docked in Majorca. During that time another English captain came over and thought it was stupid not to profit from the sale of such valuable human merchandise, so the other captain dropped a dime (or piece of eight) and told the Spaniards that there were valuable Muslim slaves in Pattison’s ship.
So Pattison, Lurting, the English crew, and the Algerine prisoners slipped away from Majorca.
Pattison and Lurting tricked the Algerines into thinking they were going to Algiers, steering that direction in the daytime but then surreptitiously steering for England at night. When the Algerines found out, they threatened Pattison, and it looked for a while as if the pirates might have the upper hand again. But the English crew, brandishing their weapons, persuaded the Algerines to give up their mutiny and go below. Lurting was pleased that nobody had been killed, though the English crew had only saved the day by threats of deadly force – not consistent with the purest form of pacifism.
Pattison and Lurting, based perhaps on their compassion for the Algerines and/or the desire to be rid of them, decided to drop them on shore near Algiers. Bringing the ship close to shore, Lurting arranged the Algerines in the ship’s boat. Others in the crew wanted to at least tie up the Algerines, but that would be too degrading, Lurting believed. So the English crew stood in the boat with their weapons (and the Algerines’), while having the Algerines sit on each others’ laps while the boat was rowed to shore.
Just before the boat landed, a crew member mistakenly thought he saw armed men in the bushes – this scared Lurting and the others, emboldening the Algerines to try another mutiny. Lurting became a bit less peaceful:
It’s better to strike a Blow, than to cleave a Man’s Head, or cut off an Arm ; and I turned the Hook of the Boat-hook into my Hand…then I struck the Captain [of the Algerines] a smart Blow, and bid him sit down, which he did instantly
If the boat hook looked anything like this, it certainly resembled a “carnal weapon.”
Then the English turned the Algerines loose on shore and tossed their weapons over to them. The Algerines invited the English to come with them to a nearby town and have some wine, and Lurting was tempted, but apparently the rest of the crew were not.
“C’mon, guys, come back! Don’t worry that we’re going to get you drunk and then enslave you, because the thought never even crossed our minds.”
So the English went back to their ship and went back to England. And nobody had been killed or enslaved. Maybe it made the pirates think.
A Barbary pirate, perhaps thinking deeply about Quaker nonviolence
Works Consulted
William E. A. Axon, Thomas Lurting: A Liverpool Worthy.Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. For the year 1885 – Volume XXXVII. New Series.-Volume I. Liverpool: Printed for the Society, 1888, 21-28.
Mark G. Hanna, Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
Thomas Lurting, The Fighting Sailor Turn’d Peaceable Christian: Manifested in the Convincement and Conversion of Thomas Lurting. With a short Relation of many Great Dangers, and wonderful Deliverances, he met withal. First Written for private Satisfaction, and Now Published for general Service. London: Printed and Sold at the Bible in George yard, Lombard-Street, 1766.
Florida Man returned to consciousness to that special headache and muscle pain that he knew from experience as the after-effects of electrocution. Judging by the pain in his back, someone had either jammed a taser or live wire into the base of his spine. He tried to move his right hand to explore the spot, but it wasn’t moving. Oh shit! He was paralyzed! Never to shoot a block of tannerite from way to close again. Wait, wait.
Maybe… maybe he wasn’t paralyzed. Maybe this was the OTHER kind of hospital he was in. Yep, given a moment to get his bearings, the arms weren’t moving because he wearing a straight-jacket. Thank The Mouse! Florida Man knew exactly what kind of scams go on in nursing homes to paralyzed patients. No way was he going to be a living sex doll for some oxycodone dependent semi-literate nursing home attendant to pimp out. Straight jacket, taser wounds, Florida Man could deal with that. It smelled like Lake County Hospital. Yes. Okay. It was starting to come back.
His minions had roughed up Papa Voudoun, who was also a Medicare fraudster. Florida Man could see now that just because a Santeria priest made a living by Medicare fraud didn’t mean that he didn’t have some powerful voodoo. Those two minions came back as flesh-eating zombies. Or maybe they’d just gotten into a bad bag of bath salts, but the timing was awfully suspicious. At any rate, he’d been forced to flee his lair and made the mistake of speaking openly about his fears of having his intestines eaten by his former minions. Officers were called, tasers were deployed, Florida Men were arrested.
“Hey!” He called.
“Hey! I’m not crazy anymore and I want to call my lawyer!”
A skinny little ferret of a redneck in a corrections uniform came to get him.
“You get ate up by any o’ them zombies?” The CO asked. “Heh, heh.”
Florida Man dialed up his lawyer. Actually, the CO dialed his lawyer and set the phone in the crook of Florida Man’s shoulder, the straight-jacket still being in place.
“Listen, Pam, its Florida Man. I’m in the Lake County jail and I need out.”
“What?! What do you mean, cash-flow problems?!”
From out of the phone speaker the tale emerged.
“It seems, uh, FM, as if the woman you put in charge of skimming Gainesville may have taken some liberties with your money. It does appear that she might have used some of the money for, uh, cosmetic surgery.”
Florida Man swore. “I’ll fucking rearrange her ass for her.”
“Well, she paid a doctor a lot of money to have that done.”
“What? Fuck. Fuck! Get me out of here.”
“Okay, okay. Its going to take a little while. You know I don’t front money to clients. I’ll have to get in touch with some of the others and maybe pawn a few things. What about the airboat?”
“No. No! Do not pawn or sell the airboat.”
“Yeah, okay. You’re breaking up, I’ll get someone down there, probably by tomorrow.”
Florida Man let the phone drop to the floor. He kicked it across the room and started beating his head against the wall and chanting, “I’ll kill her. I’ll kill her.”
Suddenly there was a sharp pinch and the warm, relaxing feeling of a lorazepam and haloperidol cocktail washed over his body. Florida Man was in jail for a while, and he didn’t care.
OK, can we officially put anything to do with the NBA to bed for a month or so anyway? The draft is over. And I will grudgingly acknowledge that Philly might be in a position to win 30 games for the first time in a while. But they’re still several healthy years away from the juggernaut a few Glibs claim they’re on the cusp of becoming. A lot can happen with young guys and hopes built on undrafted or largely unproven young players. Just ask the Celtics from the last couple of decades. Anyway, the Chicago Bulls probably had the best night of anyone in the NBA, except for LaVarr Ball obviously. That trade they pulled off in conjunction with their drafting of the Finnish seven-footer that can jack up shots from anywhere puts them firmly on equal footing with the Sixers in regards to a core of young talent. Only time will tell how it works out.
TCU! TCU! TCU! The Horned Frogs knocked Louisville out of the CWS. Let’s hope they don’t run out of gas in the final four. Especially since they’re playing the Gators…who almost everybody in America rightly hates. Also, the Astros won again. And a little nugget: they need to win one of their next five games to finish the first half of the season 20 games over .500. Which is pretty much insane.
Not much else on the sports front. Which I’m sure makes some of you very happy. And which also allows me to jump into…the links!
Alex(andra) Hai
Mama mia! First and only female gondolier in Venice’s history says she’s now a dude. Or that she always was a dude. Or…something, Hell, I don’t know.
James Comey visits the New York Times. Maybe he can ask for the documents he stole from the federal government and leaked to them so he can comply with congressional requests while he’s there.
Senate Republicans spin up obstruction of justice investigation for Loretta Lynch. If only there were some sort of, I don’t know, metal law…
Irish surprised to find out they aren’t white allowed to flaunt immigration laws anymore. If ever they were. It takes a special level of stupid to go on TV and talk about being illegal.
GIS for “sowing discord” makes as much sense as anything else Trump does
Oh, man, Trump bluffed Comey to keep him honest in his testimony and everyone is surprised, shocked, horrified that there are no tapes. Something, something his lips were moving. Also, see this grandmaster trolling. The enemy of my enemy is neither my friend nor ally necessarily, but I can enjoy watching him sow chaos and disorder.
From the Staff: By popular demand (or at least a couple of vague questions about it) we will be presenting a (somewhere between weekly and sporadically) column on the soccer, or football as most of the world calls it. Also, to keep it really interesting, we will also include Australian Rules Football and Rugby Football. First up is…
Euro Futbol! And a lesson in Spanish tax compliance.
It’s silly season in European football. Sillier than normal so far, because thanks to a new TV deal, Premier League clubs have more money than ever, and they’re spending it left and right. Manchester City spent £35 million to replace a keeper they bought for £17 million last season (after it took about 3 games to realize he sucked). Outside of England, not much is going on, though there are lots of big money rumors. Makes sense, because the transfer window (the period during which player transfers are allowed to take place) doesn’t start until July 1.
Even though it’s mid-June, the first qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League starts in a week, featuring teams from countries where you could probably get onto a top division club if you wanted to.
Champions League, First Qualifying Round (First games June 27/28, second games July 4/5)
Víkingur (Faroe Islands) v Trepça ’89 (Kosovo)
Hibernians (Malta) v FCI Tallinn (Estonia)
Alashkert (Armenia) v FC Santa Coloma (Andorra)
The New Saints (Wales) v Europa (Gibraltar)
Linfield (Northern Ireland) v La Fiorita (San Marino)
Expect each of the victors to lose to bigger opponents in the Second Qualifying Round.
Since not much is going on, we’ll go to an actual libertarian subject: Taxes. More specifically, the Spanish government prosecutions of Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and possibly Jose Mourinho for tax evasion.
Under Spanish law, individuals who spend 183 days or more in a year in Spain are considered to be residents for tax purposes. Since footballers would naturally spend more than 183 days a year in Spain, they became residents for tax purposes (even if their true home was elsewhere), and thus owed Spanish tax on their worldwide income.
In 2005, the Spanish government approved Royal Decree 687/2005, which allowed a foreign resident who has relocated to Spain from another country the choice of being taxed as a Spanish resident or non-Spanish resident. The choice was valid for five years. By choosing to be taxed as a non-Spanish resident, such individuals could avoid Spanish tax on their worldwide income, paying Spanish tax only on income actually earned in Spain. This came to be known as the “Beckham Law” because the first foreign individual to take advantage of it was David Beckham, after his move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
What all of this meant was that such individuals would not pay Spanish tax on their non-Spanish derived income and would pay a 24% tax rate on their Spanish income, as compared to the 24 to 43% progressive rate paid by Spanish residents. The law also disallowed deductions, meaning it was only applicable to higher net-worth individuals.
In November 2009, the Spanish government reversed the law, and individuals entering Spain after January 1, 2010 would not be able to benefit from the law. The law was fully repealed by 2014. Higher net worth individuals, of course, looked for ways to reduce their tax burdens.
Lionel Messi, who had entered Spain before he law had taken effect, was the first to face prosecution for tax evasion (or tax fraud, according to Spanish authorities). According to the Spanish prosecutors, Messi and his father had used companies in Belize and Uruguay to sell his image rights, thus hiding the income from Spanish authorities. Messi and his father were thus accused of hiding €4.1 million in income from Spain as a result. Messi ended up paying €5.1 million in back taxes, was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to 21 months in prison (suspended, because all Spanish prison sentences under 2 years are automatically suspended where the individual does not have a prior record) and paid another €1.7 million in fines.
My taxes are thiiiiis high!
Neymar’s case has less to do with taxes and more to do with an outright fraud case, though taxes do play a part. When Neymar moved from FC Santos to Barcelona, the transfer fee was a reported €17.1 million. At the time, 40% of the ownership of Neymar was in the hands of DIS Esporte, a Brazilian investment group. As such, they were entitled to 40% of the fee, or €6.8 million. The accusation, however, is that an additional €40 million fee was classified as a wage instead of a transfer fee. This had the effect of reducing Barcelona’s tax burden (for which they’ve already paid a €5.5 million fine) and potentially defrauding DIS of an additional 40% cut from that €40 million. Like Messi, Neymar is unlikely to see prison even when he’s convicted.
How about we settle at 3 million?
Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009, is now facing a similar fate to Messi. Ronaldo’s lawyers claim that, since he entered the country before the termination of the law, he had the right to protection under the Beckham Law. Ronaldo, according to Spanish prosecutors, was paid €153 million in December 2014 – just before the full repeal of the Beckham Law – for image rights for a future time period, 2015 to 2020, where the Beckham Law would not be in effect and the tax burden would be higher. Ronaldo fully paid his required taxes on that amount. Again, like Messi and Neymar, he’s unlikely to face prison even if convicted.
Hark! The Taxman Cometh?
And now this week, Jose Mourinho has been accused of a similar fraud, with Spanish prosecutors accusing him of evading €3.3 million in taxes between 2011 and 2012.
Are you saying I might have to assume this position?
But back to Ronaldo, this has him fed up with Spain, and there are rumors abound that he could be headed back to England and Manchester United for a ridiculous sum (£175 million plus £60 million rated goalkeeper David de Gea according to one rumor). Outside of very famed clubs (Barcelona, Madrid, Paris St. Germain), players are seemingly starting to become more interested in heading to England (or Monaco) than to Spain and France, because of the tax burdens their footballing income create.
I’ll try to end every one of these columns with a footballing quote. This one comes from the greatest manager in football history, Bill Shankly. On football and on the Merseyside derby.
I’ve seen supporters on Merseyside going to the ground together, one wearing red and white and the other blue and white, which is unusual elsewhere. You get families in Liverpool in which half support Liverpool and the other half Everton. They support rival teams but they have the same temperament and they know each other. They are unique in the sense that their rivalry is so great but there is no real aggro between them. This is quite amazing.
I am not saying they love each other. Oh, no. Football is not a matter of life and death … it’s much more important than that. And it’s more important to them than that. But I’ve never seen a fight at a derby game. Shouting and bawling … yes. But they don’t fight each other. And that says a lot for them.
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Florida Man returned to consciousness to that special headache and muscle pain that he knew from experience as the after-effects of electrocution. Judging by the pain in his back, someone had either jammed a taser or live wire into the base of his spine. He tried to move his right hand to explore the spot, but it wasn’t moving. Oh shit! He was paralyzed! Never to shoot a block of tannerite from way to close again. Wait, wait.
