The author indicates that taxes were paid, just the wrong style of taxes:
I had been declaring that ad revenue as "extra income" and dutifully paying my taxes on it. Suddenly last year the IRS informed me I owed them scads of money that I didn't have. Still, it's nice to know the IRS has time and resources to squeeze both me AND the guys who brought down Wall Street. Oh, wait, those guys are still swilling Chivas in their gated burbclaves.
It's an easy mistake to make. I know someone who did this very thing.
It's true that American education does a pitiful job of impressing upon the average citizen that (a) accountants rule the world; (b) you should therefore take a basic accounting class, and/or pay attention to the words in those IRS instructions that the government carefully mails to you every year; and (c) you should talk to an accountant for an hour every few years, unless you can't afford that, in which case you should probably still try to find a way to talk to an accountant, pro bono or something, because they might be able to help.
Talking to an accountant isn't expensive. It's just a task which people think of as unpleasant. It's kind of like somebody moping about how they need to pay $500 for dental work, because they didn't visit a dentist when the problem was easily fixed.
I had been declaring that ad revenue as "extra income" and dutifully paying my taxes on it. Suddenly last year the IRS informed me I owed them scads of money that I didn't have. Still, it's nice to know the IRS has time and resources to squeeze both me AND the guys who brought down Wall Street. Oh, wait, those guys are still swilling Chivas in their gated burbclaves.