The Internal Revenue Service announced that Marlin Dahl, owner of Dahl Trucking in Elmore, MN, has been convicted for failing to collect and pay Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes.
Federal law requires that employers withhold and turn over to the IRS federal income and social security tax deducted from employee payroll checks, the IRS said.
According to the agency, Special Agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division found that from 2007 to 2010 Dahl failed to deduct more than $54,000 in FICA taxes from driver’s payroll checks. Agents discovered that instead, Dahl hatched a scheme whereby he recorded wage payments as “road expenses” of his drivers, which were incorrectly treated as reimbursements and not wages.
“Employment taxes make up a large portion of federal tax revenue and are vital to paying for the services our government provides,” said Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of the St. Paul IRS Criminal Investigation Field Office. “When working taxpayers file their returns they need to have confidence that their employer is properly collecting and paying all appropriate taxes.”
No sentencing date has been scheduled.
