Michael Collins, of McClelland, IA pled guilty in Federal Court to charges of tax evasion in December, 2017.
From 2006 to the present, Collins owned and operated an excavating and trucking company earning over $5.5 million in gross receipts. In order to avoid paying taxes, Collins registered the business and bank accounts in the names of nominees. He filed fraudulent corporate returns which listed the nominees as the owners of his business, and instead of paying taxes, he used the money for personal expenses. The fraudulent returns claimed that the business had no gross income and his only source of income was from unemployment benefits.
In 2006 Collins was also part owner of a real estate development company, and earned over $289,000 but didn’t report the income on his individual tax returns. The IRS contacted Collins about the unreported income and Collins filed an amended tax return showing he owed the IRS more than $100,000, and did not pay the IRS.
Collins will be sentenced in May, 2018 and faces up to five years in prison, supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
