Texas roofing company owner gets 30 months for hiding from a $1.4 million payroll tax bill
David Stone, owner of Engineered Metals Company, a Texas roofing, sheet metal and siding firm, was sentenced Oct. 29 to 30 months in federal prison for blocking the IRS from collecting about $1.4 million in unpaid employment taxes, the Justice Department said.
According to the department, Stone withheld employment taxes from his workers' pay and did not turn the money over to the IRS. Once the agency began collection proceedings against him, he quit filing his own income tax returns and paid personal bills, including child support and alimony, out of company accounts. The department said that kept the money out of his name and hid his income from the IRS. The conduct ran from 2013 through 2024 and cost the government about $1.4 million.
Stone had earlier pleaded guilty to a single count of obstructing the administration of federal tax law. Besides the prison term, he was ordered to serve a year of supervised release and repay about $1,384,766 to the United States. IRS Criminal Investigation handled the case, and a trial attorney from the Tax Section of the department's Fraud Division, set up in April, prosecuted it. The sentence was announced together with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
Why it matters: Payroll taxes withheld from a crew's checks are owed to the IRS. Stone used company accounts to stay ahead of collection for more than a decade and ended up with 30 months in prison and $1.38 million in restitution.
Sources
- Owner of Construction Company Sentenced to Prison for Obstructing IRS Efforts to Collect $1.4M in Unpaid TaxesU.S. Department of Justice, Oct 29