Roofing News

Colorado Roofing Contractor Sentenced for Tax Evasion

handcuffs-police-roofing — Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash.

DURANGO, Colo. – U.S. Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced that Ryan Wilkinson, 42, of Durango, Colo. was sentenced on Feb. 2 to serve three months in prison, followed by six months of home confinement to be served during three years of supervised release for tax evasion. Wilkinson was also ordered to pay restitution of $228,300.41 to the IRS. Wilkinson pleaded guilty on Oct. 23, 2020.

According to the Information and plea agreement, Wilkinson is the sole owner and operator of a roofing company in Durango, Colo. From at least January 2015, through December 2017, Wilkinson earned substantial personal income from this company but did not file federal income tax returns despite being aware of his legal obligation to do so. During this time, Wilkinson hired a bookkeeper to assist with the QuickBooks for his company, yet refused to provide sufficient records and information for the bookkeeper to accurately record Wilkinson’s income and expenses.

Additionally, Wilkinson had his company pay the rent on his personal residence and make payments for one of his personal investments. He instructed the bookkeeper to classify these payments as business expenses, despite being told that these personal expenses could not be classified as business expenses. Wilkinson also used a company credit card to pay other personal expenses.

“You’re not going to get away with cheating the IRS in the District of Colorado,” said Dunn. “Cheating on your taxes hurts everyone. If you try it, you can be sure that the excellent agents with IRS-CI together with the federal prosecutors in my office are going to catch you and hold you accountable. This cheater will now have a federal felony conviction on his record for the rest of his life.”

This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen D. Rhyne is prosecuting.

“The term voluntary compliance means that each of us is responsible for filing a tax return when required and for paying the correct amount of tax,” according to Special Agent in Charge Andy Tsui. “Mr. Wilkinson ignored his duty to file federal tax returns to evade paying taxes and is now a convicted felon with a prison term to serve.”