Brick business owner gets year in prison for failing to pay employment taxes

A Manahawkin man who owns a business in Brick has been sentenced to one year plus one day in prison for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito for the District of New Jersey.

Richard Dale previously plead guilty to the charge in January of 2019.

Dale operated Advanced Pro Home Care Inc. (Home Care), a health care agency located in Brick.

As operator and payroll manager of Home Care, Dale was responsible for depositing and withdrawing money from Home Care’s business bank accounts, administering its accounts payable and receivable and preparing payroll for its employees.

Dale also was required to report and pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

From 2012 through 2014, Dale did not pay to the IRS substantial employment taxes owed by Home Care, including employee federal income tax withholdings, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes, and he did not file the requisite employment tax forms, according to Zuckerman and Carpenito who cited information and other pleadings filed in the case.

It was during this time that Home Care amounted more than $500,000 in employment tax liabilities, but Dale reportedly only made a single payment of approximately $30,000.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan ordered Dale to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $504,145 in restitution to the United States.

“Business owners have a responsibility to withhold payroll taxes from their employees and remit those taxes to the Internal Revenue Service,” John R. Tafur, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Newark Field Office, said. “Investigating employment tax fraud is a priority for IRS Criminal Investigation as our system of taxation depends on everybody paying their fair share.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Carpenito thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Lee Urbano and Trial Attorney Shawn Noud of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.

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