A man from California was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in employment taxes. This is a serious crime that involved withholding taxes from his employees’ wages but not sending them to the IRS as required by law.
Mike’s Responsibility as a Business Owner
Shane Brightpath Mike owned a business called Excel Behavioral Services Inc., located in Campbell, California. His company provided home care services for people with disabilities. As the president and chief operating officer of the company, Mike had an important job. He was responsible for withholding taxes from his employees’ paychecks. These taxes included Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes.
Once the taxes were withheld from the employees, Mike’s responsibility was to pay them to the IRS. This is a legal requirement for all businesses. However, Mike did not follow the law. For five quarters, from the last part of 2014 to the third quarter of 2015, Mike failed to pay the IRS any of the taxes that were withheld from his workers’ wages.
Falsifying Tax Returns and Using Company Funds
In addition to failing to pay the taxes, Mike took money from his company’s funds for his personal use. This was not only illegal but also put the financial stability of his business at risk. He used the money that should have been paid to the IRS to pay for personal expenses instead.
Mari Alexander Charged with Employment Tax Crimes
Mike also committed another crime by filing false tax returns. For the tax years 2014 and 2015, he submitted income tax returns where he falsely claimed that the federal taxes had been withheld from his own salary. He knew that these withholdings were not actually paid to the IRS but chose to lie about it. This helped him avoid paying the correct amount of taxes and further contributed to the crime.
Major Loss to the IRS
The total amount of money that Mike owed the IRS, due to his failure to pay the withheld taxes, was $1,177,947. This is a huge amount of money that could have been used by the government for important programs and services. Instead, Mike’s actions caused a major loss to the IRS and put his employees’ withheld tax payments at risk.
For his crimes, Mike was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. In addition to the prison sentence, he will also have to serve three years of supervised release once he finishes his time in prison. This means that after his release, he will be under supervision and must follow strict rules. On top of this, he is ordered to pay back the full amount of money he stole from the IRS, which is $1,177,947.
Mike’s case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, which works to uncover financial crimes like this one. The case was prosecuted by a team of lawyers from both the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
This case highlights the seriousness of failing to pay taxes and the consequences of trying to cheat the government. It also shows how important it is for business owners to act responsibly and follow the law when it comes to handling employee wages and taxes.
