A Georgia mayor is on the line for allegedly evading taxes. Although no criminal charges have officially been filed, the district attorney has already announced his intention to charge the part-time mayor of a small town with tax evasion. However, while the mayor is accused of personal tax evasion that is often depicted in film and on TV, the accusations are also related to payroll taxes.
His part-time gig as the small town’s mayor is apparently supplemented by a personal business that he owns. It is unclear what sparked the original investigation into his personal and business-related taxes, but the results of that investigation are rather serious. Although the mayor withheld the proper amount of taxes from his employee’s paychecks, he may not have actually handed those taxes over to the state of Georgia.
In addition to the DA’s announcement regarding the soon-to-be-filed charges, the investigation is branching elsewhere. The town was recently asked to collect its financial records for city business and to hand all of that information over to the DA’s office for further review. There was no indication given as to why the town’s financial activity might be in question other than the alleged activity of its mayor.
The state of Georgia views the act of withholding payroll taxes but failing to pay them as a serious offense for a number of reasons. Not only is this considered a form of tax evasion, but it is also failing to pay another person’s taxes. Criminal charges such as this are often pursued aggressively, meaning that time is of the essence for most defendants, and no time is too early to begin considering different possible strategies for minimizing the impact of criminal allegations.
Source: wtvm.com, “District attorney will bring criminal tax evasion charges against Snellville’s mayor”, Dante Renzulli, June 16, 2016