David Kestenbaum

Note: This episode originally aired in 2016.

A lot of people dream of not paying their taxes. Larry Williams did just that. He scoured the fine print of IRS code, talked to lawyers, settled on a plan, and then...stopped paying taxes.

Today on the show, we tell his story. It starts on a camping trip, winds through a jail cell in Australia and a courtroom in California, and it ends up in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Each summer, as college students prepare to leave campus, they get rid of their textbooks, selling them for cheap. And Bob Peterson and Kenny Jacobson are waiting to buy them, and resell them when school is back in session and demand is high. Their scheme sounds simple, and it is. They've noticed a difference in price, and they're turning it into a quick profit.

Note: This episode originally ran in 2015.

Spreadsheets used to be actual sheets of paper. Sometimes, a bunch of sheets of paper taped together.

Any calculation made on a spreadsheet was done by hand, and these could take days to complete for an accountant or bookkeeper. It was tedious. One little adjustment to these calculations meant a whole day of erasing and filling the same boxes out again.