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Amouranth May Have Made A Big Mistake

Twitch streamer Amouranth is no stranger to controversy. Even with a shady side that includes Twitch bans and "hot tub streaming," Amouranth — whose real name is Kaitlyn Siragusa — has become one of the most popular streamers on the platform, and has created a blueprint that many other streamers are attempting to emulate. With a current Twitch follower count of 4.73 million and, according to the past summer's Twitch leaks, makes just under $1.4 million a year on the platform alone, Amouranth is among the site's top 50 earners and is looking to further expand her empire. Just recently, the streamer purchased a gas station for $4 million in an effort to offset her taxes and ultimately turn a profit down the line. She then bought a second gas station to continue reducing her tax income liability, which is 37% according to her math.

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Unfortunately, it seems this plan may backfire on her. In order to buy the gas stations, Amouranth fronted $1 million of her own money and received a loan to fork out the remaining $3 million to make the purchase. "Listed for $4,000,000. I invest $1,000,000 and borrow the rest," Amouranth explained on Twitter. "Now since we bought this gas station & in accordance with applicable laws... I will take an accelerated depreciation charge of approximately $3m." In a previous tweet, Amouranth seemed to imply that if her math was correct, she essentially made $110,000 in her purchase and will, in turn, be liable to pay less in taxes. Others have since come out and said that she is making a big mistake in this regard, and her math might not be right at all.

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Amouranth isn't a business

In response to Amouranth's seemingly savvy plan to pay fewer taxes, YouTuber and real estate agent Spencer Cornelia and guest Jayson Thornton discussed whether it will actually work. Unfortunately, they're just not seeing it. According to Thornton, Amouranth's 37% marginal tax rate is not related to business, but is instead her personal tax rate. "This is not an active business venture for her," Thornton said. "This is not something that she's going to be managing." In other words, Amouranth can't use the same tax rates for her passive income as she does her personal taxes. This means that instead of the gas station being owned by a corporation, Amouranth is just merely a landlord. "That's not a business tax rate because if it was a corporation, you would be limited at the 21% tax rate," Thornton told Cornelia.

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Unfortunately for Amouranth, it looks like she'll be paying just as much in taxes as she was before on account of a technicality.

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