GREENBELT, Md.—U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Wayne Paul Green, age 54, of La Plata, on July 27 to two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for income tax evasion, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Williams also ordered Green to pay $427,315 in restitution to the IRS.
According to Green’s plea agreement, from at least 1986 through 2004, Wayne Green was the sole owner of a concrete finishing and smoothing business. The business operated as Wayne Concrete until approximately April 2000, when Green was contacted by the Small Business/Self-Employed Collections Division of the IRS in an attempt to collect approximately $336,241 in employment taxes owed by Green for the years 1998, 1999, and 2000. Shortly after that, Green changed the company’s name to W&D Services.
After changing his company’s name, Green falsely represented to his return preparer and to the IRS on multiple occasions that the new company was being operated by his wife and that the company’s gross receipts should be reported on her tax returns. Through this false representation, Green caused a substantial portion of his company’s gross receipts in the 2001 tax year to be reported on his wife’s return, while he reported only approximately $6,000 in gross receipts on his own 2001 return. Green then instructed his return preparer to include the company’s reported gross receipts on his wife’s returns for the 2002 and 2003 tax years, and he did not file a return for those years. In addition to placing the business’s gross receipts on his wife’s returns, Green substantially understated the gross receipts and profits actually realized by the company in order to evade the payment of $336,241 in employment taxes owed to the IRS. For tax years 2001 through 2004, Green did not report more than $700,000 in income, resulting in a tax loss of over $91,000 and a total tax loss of $427,315, including the employment taxes owed.
“Businesses that cheat on their taxes can charge lower prices,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We have a duty to prevent tax criminals from gaining an advantage over honest businesses.”
“Tax evasion is not a victimless crime,” stated C. Andre' Martin, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge. “Honest, hardworking Americans pay the price when others choose to evade their tax obligations. These types of crimes create a significant loss of tax revenue and burden our economy.”
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation for its investigative work and commended Assistant United States Attorneys Robert K. Hur and Michael R. Pauze who prosecuted the case.
Source: United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland