Ryan Wilkinson, Tax Evasion, Colorado 2021

A Durango roofing business owner has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution for tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado.

Ryan Wilkinson, 42, of Durango, Colorado was sentenced on February 2, 2021, to serve 3 months in prison, followed by 6 months of home confinement to be served during 3 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 October 23, 2020, to tax evasion, a felony offense.

According to the Information and plea agreement, Wilkinson is the sole owner and operator of a roofing company in Durango, Colorado. 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.

“You’re not going to get away with cheating the IRS in the District of Colorado,” said U.S. Attorney Jason 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 this matter.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/roofing-business-owner-sentenced-tax-evasion