O.C. Business Owner Faces Tax Evasion Charge Related to Nearly $30 Million Owed to IRS on Payroll

[TexasTowelie]

O.C. Business Owner Faces Tax Evasion Charge Related to Nearly $30 Million Owed to IRS on Payroll Taxes Withheld from Employees


SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County business owner is named in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today that charges him with tax evasion for failing to pay to the Internal Revenue Service nearly $30 million in payroll taxes, penalties and interest related to money that had been withheld from the salaries of employees of his various temporary worker companies.

Luis E. Perez – who has maintained residences in Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda and Dove Canyon – is charged with one felony count of tax evasion in an indictment returned by a grand jury on August 28.

Perez’s companies – which include Checkmates Staffing Inc.; Staffaide Inc.; BaronHR, LLC; and Fortress Holding Group, LLC – were required to withhold taxes from employee wages and to pay the withheld amounts to the IRS on a periodic basis. These withheld taxes, sometimes known as “trust fund taxes,” include income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare.

The indictment alleges that for the tax years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010, Perez’s companies failed to pay the IRS the payroll taxes, including trust fund taxes that Perez’s companies withheld from employees’ paychecks. Beginning in June 2007, the IRS attempted to collect Perez’s outstanding tax liability, including penalties and interest. By February 2017, the outstanding balance had grown to $29,593,378, which included the unpaid taxes, interest and the “Trust Fund Recovery Penalty.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/oc-business-owner-faces-tax-evasion-charge-related-nearly-30-million-owed-irs-payroll