Nevada Business Owner Convicted of Evading Payment of Employment Taxes and Penalties | WPN World People News

A Las Vegas, Nevada business owner was convicted by a federal jury of tax evasion, on June 14th, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Steven W. Myhre for the District of Nevada.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Maria Larkin, 55, owned and operated Five Star Home Health Care Inc. (Five Star). Larkin was responsible for collecting, accounting for, and paying over income, social security, and Medicare tax withheld from her employees’ wages. From 2004 through 2009, Larkin did not pay over the employment taxes she withheld. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assessed trust fund recovery penalties (TFRPs) against Larkin for these years, which made her personally liable for the unpaid employment taxes.

Larkin concealed her assets and income to evade paying the TFRPs and to obstruct the IRS’s efforts to collect the outstanding taxes. She lied to the IRS regarding her ability to pay, changed the name of her business, placed her business in the name of a nominee, had her employees cash checks for her and bought a home in the name of a nominee. In total, Larkin evaded more than $1.6 million in taxes.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 13, 2017. Larkin faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice