On October 29, 2019 we ORIGINALLY posted The IRS is Now Criminally Prosecuting Employers For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! where we discussed that the IRS is stepping up criminally prosecuting business owners for failing to turn over withheld payroll taxes.
Since then:
- on October 12, 2020 we posted The IRS Criminally Prosecutes Yet Another Employer For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes!,
- on June 4, 2020 we posted Another Employer Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes!,
- on June 29, 2020 we posted More Employers Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes!,
- on October 28, 2020 we posted IRS CONTINUES to Criminally Prosecutes Employers For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes - As Promised!,
- on December 7, 2020 we posted Toms River NJ Law Partner Sentenced to 1 Year & 1 Day in Prison for Failing to Pay Over Payroll Taxes
and now according to DoJ, an Owner of Plumbing Businesses Pleads Guilty to Employment Tax Fraud.
Thomas O’Connell owned and operated three plumbing businesses, Quality Plumbing and Heating, Orbit Plumbing and Heating, and Orbit PHC, each based in Great Falls.
From at least 2005 through 2016, O’Connell did not pay employment taxes for several quarters, despite being obligated to ensure such taxes were paid to the IRS. Instead, he directed payments to other creditors and to his own personal expenses. The total tax loss to the IRS from O’Connell’s conduct is more than $550,000.
O’Connell was scheduled to be sentenced on June 24, 2021, and faces a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.
Additionally the DoJ prosecuted and a New York Business Owner Who Pled Guilty to Payroll Tax Fraud. The owner of a Brooklyn construction business, AD Custom Interiors Inc., pleaded guilty on July 9, 2021 to not paying payroll taxes to the IRS.
According to court documents, as the sole owner and operator of AD Custom, Anthony Riccio had a duty to truthfully account for and pay over to the IRS payroll taxes owed by his employees. From approximately January 2011 through January 2016, Riccio cashed over $3.1 million in checks paid to AD Custom. Riccio used some of that cash to pay wages to his employees. Riccio concealed these cash payments from AD Custom’s return preparer, causing the accountant to prepare employment tax returns that underreported wages and payroll taxes owed. Over five years, Riccio failed to pay $255,433 in federal payroll taxes, including income, Social Security and Medicare taxes, owed by AD Custom and its employees.
Riccio is scheduled to be sentenced on October 21, 2021 and faces a maximum penalty of five (5) years in prison. Riccio also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
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