Twice as nice; moving violation; A to Z to jail; and other highlights of recent tax cases.
Pittsburgh: John C. Thornton of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, owner and operator of Tax Centers of America franchises in Pittsburgh, has pleaded guilty to aiding or assisting in the preparation or filing of false federal income tax returns.
Between 2012 and 2017, IRS investigators uncovered a high pattern of personal income tax returns containing Schedules C and falsification of these schedules that were prepared and filed by Thornton and tax preparers at his business.
Sentencing is June 21. Thornton faces not more than three years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.
Del Mar, California: CEO Michael Todd Lucas has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for employment tax crimes.
Lucas controlled TradeMotion Inc., which sold software to automotive dealerships. From the fourth quarter of 2011 through the third quarter of 2015, he collected more than $2.1 million in withholdings from TradeMotion employees and issued them W-2s. He paid only $760,017 of these funds to the IRS.
Lucas also did not pay to the IRS employment taxes withheld on behalf of the employees of other companies he controlled, causing an additional tax loss of more than $3.5 million.
He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay some $4.9 million in restitution.
Houston: Tax preparer Marcia Angella Johnson has been sentenced to 15 months in prison to be followed by a year of supervised release for falsely…
