I never said 100%. I am not sure if I put off the wrong vibe by accidentally insinuating that founders are lavishly burning money or something. That’s not my intention. My point is that 50k/yr is not enough to live in SF or NYC. Something is filling the gap.
The logistics aren't really the point. No I don’t know how exactly founders do their taxes. But I do know that when you work 24/7, a lot of things look like business expenses.
My guess would be what's filling the gap is pre-existing savings/family money.
My point is just that the IRS has standards for what you can deduct or treat as a business expense (rather than wages), and it is not "when you work 24/7 a lot of things look like business expenses".
Not paying for your own apartment and instead treating it like a business expense still sounds like tax fraud to me, whether or not the business has it's own office yet.
The logistics aren't really the point. No I don’t know how exactly founders do their taxes. But I do know that when you work 24/7, a lot of things look like business expenses.