Internet Tax Lawyers

The criminal tax conviction of a New Jersey couple (the DeMuros) for failure to pay payroll taxes to the IRS was affirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, United States v. DeMuro (3d Cir. 2012). The willful failure to pay payroll taxes is a violation Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7202, and is punishable by up to five years in prison. Of course the willful failure by a responsible officer to pay trust fund taxes is also a violation of IRC Section 6672, and will result in a trust fund recovery penalty (TFRP) being assessed against the responsible officers. Obviously the criminal tax conviction is much more serious than the assessment of the trust fund recovery penalty.

Mrs. DeMuro argued at trial that she was not responsible for paying the payroll taxes. The IRS response was to show that that Mrs. DeMuro had the authority to fire employees and signatory authority over corporate bank accounts.

Interestingly the IRS also called as a witness the Enrolled Agent that represented the DeMuros before the IRS with regard to the payroll tax problems. The Enrolled Agent testified that he had reviewed two appeals that the DeMuros had filed, and that in his opinion they were meritless, and therefore should have been withdrawn. Advice which apparently the DeMuros didn’t follow, and the IRS relied on this as evidence of bad faith on the part of the DeMuros.

The DeMuros failed to pay trust fund taxes for their business of more than $546,000 over 21 calendar quarters from 2002 to 2008, resulting in a 21 count indictment. While that is a lot of money it is easy to see how a failing business could wind up in that situation since it amounts to about $25,000 per quarter, and was spread over a seven year period. A large sum, but not shocking, at least not to tax lawyers, and other tax professionals who see this type of underpayment on a semi-regular basis.

The DeMuros tried to argue that their failure to pay wasn’t willful, but to no avail. The IRS pointed to evidence that during the same time period the DeMuros spent over $5 million dollars from their personal and corporate bank accounts. Apparently several witnesses testified at trial about the DeMuros “luxury vacations, nice homes, and [Mrs. DeMuros] substantial home shopping network expenditures,” and the DeMuros argued on appeal that the admission of this evidence was “prejudicial.” The response from the Third Circuit was: “[w]hile we are sensitive to the effect that evidence of a defendant’s liberal spending habits can have on a jury, particularly in these lean economic times, the evidence admitted in this case, i.e. evidence of vacations, jewelry, cars and parties, was not so inflammatory as to carry a great risk of prejudice.”

Small business is no stranger to payroll tax problems, but when a city becomes a victim, it makes headlines. An article from WTOK.com Channel 11 entitled IRS Says York Failed to Make Payroll Tax Payments reported that a representative from the Internal Revenue Service traveled to York, Alabama to meet with city officials to discuss their specific tax issue: unpaid payroll taxes.
It appears that the city administrator, Tim Sweezey and

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United States v. Quinn (D. KS 2011) is one of several recent felony tax prosecutions, not for tax evasion, but for violation of Internal Revenue Code Section 7202. IRC Section 7202 makes it a felony to willfully fail to collect, account for, or pay over any tax due. In this case Ms. Quinn failed to pay payroll taxes for 7 quarters between 2003 and 2005. She finally got around to paying them in 2010, apparently after the IRS had filed criminal tax charges against her. Ms. Quinn challenged the finding that she failed to pay employment and individual tax and argued that since she had subsequently paid the tax due the charges should be dismissed.

The court wrote in its opinion that a person has failed to pay taxes if they have not paid the amount due as of the due date, regardless of whether the taxpayer has subsequently paid. In Ms. Quinn’s case, she had recently paid the amounts due but this was not sufficient for the court to find her not guilty.

This does not mean that late payment of taxes will never prevent a criminal tax prosecution, and those who have not paid their taxes should seriously consider taking care of a tax problem before it turns into a criminal tax problem. Had Ms. Quinn gotten around to making full payment, or indeed even made good faith installment payments much earlier there is a chance that the case would never have gotten as far as it did.

I thought it was important to blog about this case because clients sometimes assume that the relatively small size of their tax problem will insulate them against criminal tax liability. While that is generally accurate, as this case illustrates, not always.

In this case the defendant is a New York CPA who, according to the information filed in U.S. District Court, failed to pay payroll taxes to the IRS for three years running. Our tax lawyers found this case interesting because the amount of unpaid trust fund taxes was not terribly large. The total the IRS alleged as unpaid was approximately $108,000, fairly small potatoes, as payroll tax cases tend to go.

The IRS has filed felony criminal tax charges pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 7202 for willful failure to collect, truthfully account for and pay over trust fund taxes. This is yet another in a series of criminal tax charges being brought against responsible officers who haven’t paid over corporate trust fund taxes. In most situations the IRS proceeds against responsible officers who willfully fail to pay corporate trust fund taxes, by assessing the tax directly against the individual under Internal Revenue Code Section 6672. This is generally referred to as the trust fund recovery penalty. Sometimes the IRS goes further and brings criminal tax charges.

Last month, while most people were preparing their Christmas lists, Louis Alba, a New York contractor, plead guilty to criminal tax charges of failing to pay over to IRS employment taxes withheld from employee wages in the amount of almost $780,000 over approximately six years. Failure to pay over payroll taxes is considered a felony under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7202. It is punishable by up to five years in jail, and a fine of up to $250,000.

In the current economic environment business owners who are strapped for cash sometimes decide to “borrow” from the IRS by not paying the payroll taxes. The theory is that if cash is tight, and the vendors aren’t paid there will be no more merchandise to sell, and therefore the business will go under quickly. The same with the landlord; don’t pay the rent, and one can expect an eviction notice in short order. The IRS on the other hand moves slowly, and the temptation is to believe that if you have another 6 months or so business will turn around, and the IRS can be paid back.

Unfortunately in many cases that doesn’t happen. The IRS doesn’t look on this as borrowing; it views the failure to pay payroll taxes as stealing. Even if criminal tax charges are not brought, so-called responsible officers who fail to pay over corporate payroll taxes can be held personally liable under IRC Section 6671. More and more, however, the IRS is bringing criminal tax fraud charges. For the record persons convicted of tax crimes still must pay the taxes. It’s not one or the other.

It’s no secret the IRS is cracking down on small businesses with unpaid payroll taxes and past due employment taxes. If you are in need of business tax relief, here are 5 things you need to know:
#1: Understand the gravity of your situation. The IRS views unpaid payroll taxes and unpaid employment taxes as theft, and they carry severe consequences. Aside from penalties (33% plus interest at 16

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In this video, I speak to small business owners and independent contractors who owe delinquent employment or payroll taxes. When you don’t pay your payroll taxes, the IRS WILL catch up to you.  Should you find yourself in a payroll tax problem position where you have IRS stress, here are three key points to understand about the IRS’ stepped up efforts with collections. (See video and I type out the

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