Taxable Talk

You own a payroll company with your son. It’s been a good year, so you decide to give yourself a bonus from the corporation. There’s nothing wrong with that–it’s your company, and you certainly can pay yourself whatever you feel is appropriate. You do need to report that income on your tax return, of course. That last step was omitted by the subjects of this post.

William and Robert McCullough are a father and son who reside in Westborough, Massachusetts. They own a payroll company, Harpers Data Services, in Worcester, Massachusetts. There company did quite well from 2007 to 2012, as they deposited $11 million in two company bank accounts. They didn’t tell their company accountant about those two accounts. Well, the corporation only omitted $3.78 million from the corporation tax return.

Meanwhile, William McCullough wrote checks to himself, his son, and Gary Davis, a former owner of the business. One series of checks totaled $4.7 million; another was $2.7 million. That allowed the McCulloughs and Davis to avoid $1.7 million of personal income tax. The McCulloughs and Davis pleaded guilty to various tax evasion charges last week. William McCullough also pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

From 2009 through 2011, Harpers maintained client trust accounts and a client tax account. These accounts contained client funds, which were to be used to pay employees’ paychecks and employees’ federal and state taxes. From 2009 through 2011, William McCullough took approximately $1 million from the client trust accounts and deposited it into a Harpers account. In 2010, he took $750,000 from the client tax account and deposited it into a Harpers account. At the time William McCullough took this money, the funds belonged solely to the clients of Harpers Data Services. McCullough’s fraud resulted in a theft of approximately $1.8 million dollars.

The McCulloughs and Mr. Davis will almost certainly be heading to ClubFed. This is yet another reminder for everyone who uses a payroll service to join EFTPS and make sure your payroll deposits are being made. Trust but verify is excellent practice in payroll.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2015 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Tax Fraud. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.