Leffen broke the law when he earned money from Team SoloMid under a tourist VISA. TSM may be "one of the largest competitive esports companies in the world", as you say, but don't mislead folks: it's still an American company.
If Leffen broke the law, American customs would have Leffen in jail and Leffen's assets and bank accounts frozen instead of merely revoking his visa and deporting him.
As for Leffen's scenario, there's really no way for him to win. Income from video game tournament winnings isn't the same as income from being a plummer, nor is it the same as income from gambling, or is it the same as income from being hired by a professional sports league or team, nor is it the same as earning income from Pay-Per-View percentages like in fight sports.
It is a legal and taxation anomaly, and the income earned is often insignificant to the states in which it is earned (again, you're arguing federal authority used on a state issue).
It is so small and such a specific case that it is often ignored. When it isn't ignored, it often is already cut out of paychecks. Often in situations where that is the case (like LCS Finals, Dreamhack Dallas, CEO, EVO), the states in which these events occur don't have income taxes (Texas, Florida, Washington and Nevada being the key states here).
Leffen thus doesn't really have a clear cut visa category other than a work sports-related visa, which as we learned from the video, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" isn't considered a sport, yet League of Legends, DOTA, and Counter-Strike are considered sports.
On top of that Leffen got his visa revoked after earning most of the money from tournaments in states without income tax.
The definition of a "sport" is the key issue, and one the United States of America Customs services are flat wrong on. It is usually defined as "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature," in which video games would be considered.
This lack of understanding is what left Leffen in a "every choice is wrong" situation, and it is why Leffen is stuck where he is. Red Bull (a top notch Austrian country) and TSM (a top US organization) knew this, and went for the visa with the best chance of succeeding and with the most accurate description (trust me, they know more about this than some troll on the internet like yourself).
It failed, again, because of the definition of "sport," as defined in the video.
TSM
picked up Leffen back in March, 2015. He then
participated in numerous nationals on American soil while being paid by an American company,
A sponsorship is a unique type of situation in taxation. The specific kind of sponsorship Leffen has would be taxed based upon where Leffen is residing in, which would be Sweden. Even if that wasn't the case, it would be based upon which nation/state Leffen spends most of his time in, which again would be Sweden (and whatever specific region of Sweden he is from).
So that earned income is completely irrelevant no matter where the country is.
If we applied your terrible logic to say my father (an American who works for a Japanese company and visits Japan for about a quarter of the year), my father would be paying his taxes to Japan, not the state of California nor the federal government of America.
But nope, he doesn't pay a dime to any level of the Japanese government for his income.
He would have kept the gig going, to be sure. But a worker VISA would make him (explicitly) liable for federal taxes
There aren't federal taxes on this specific kind of income of someone who resides in another country. Worker visas are for people with extended long period stays in a nation/who live in a nation for that stay; the longest Leffen stayed in America was a month on 1 occasion, and his income was only earned in small batches here and there.
If it were to be more like a traditional worker visa type situation, Leffen's situation was more he traveled from place to place, much like an employee of a company who is visiting a nation for a short-period stay (this all feels like the definition of what my father does again).
Leffen didn't buy or rent a residence in America while visiting, nor did he stay in one place, which both go against central tenants of how worker visas usually worked. He stayed at hotels and friend's house, which sort of fits the description of a tourist visa more.
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Leffen's income isn't dependent on American work, but rather mostly from his sponsorship money (which America has no part in taxing on Leffen's end) and from Twitch streaming income. Even if it was reliant on tournament winnings, it would be an international affair since Leffen has won tournament prize money in roughly a dozen nations across the globe.
On top of that, again, it is all state level taxation (because he's not a resident/it doesn't pass a certain income threshold). The taxation of it isn't a whole lot different than lottery or gambling winnings, and it certainly isn't enough money to really be federally taxed (which applies only to residents).
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And again, all your statements on this are using the assumption you are right, and know more not just than me, but of the legal counsel team of TSM and Red Bull GmbH, which is insane. The weird situation is why, AGAIN, none of these specific visas really fit Leffen's work description but that of a sports business visa, of which Leffen was denied because Super Smash Bros. Melee isn't considered a sport (yet other video games are) under the categorization of another worthless American government agency.
Nice degree, by the way. Though it would seem the United States government still doesn't agree with you.
The United States of America doesn't agree with many of its' own laws. America's Federal government doesn't even agree with its' own 4th Amendment.
Also, to poke a hole in your terrible argument, again, income is taxed at the state level, and you are arguing at a federal level. On top of that, Leffen earned income on his last two visits primarily in Florida and Nevada, two states without income tax. So him earning money there wouldn't have any "red flags" for the government to pick up on.
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Additionally, what kind of taxation and/or accounting courses or knowledge do you have?
Have you taken any courses of the following?
-Federal Income Tax Accounting
-Federal Income Accounting
-State Accounting
-College Accounting
-College Tax Accounting
-Managerial Accounting
-Financial Accounting
No? Because I aced all those courses, and I have degrees in business admin, taxation, tax accounting, and book keeping.
For someone who is making such claims, you really don't know anything about them.
But besides that, intelligent argument wasn't your goal. Being a hater and a liar using it in this guise to hate Leffen was, as per your original post in the thread:
He's a ******* besides, and isn't welcome here in either case.
Your goal wasn't to make intelligent discourse on taxation (of which you have very little understanding of), it was based on hatred of Leffen.
The whole point of all this anti-Leffen speech was because you hate Leffen, not because you understand the tax law at any complex level.
Now please, as Arthur put it (note: replace "me" with "Leffen")...
