From staff reports ROGERS, Ark. – An Arkansas man was sentenced Oct. 30 to 20 months in prison for filing a false individual income tax return, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Rogers resident Carlos Gonzalez filed false tax returns that underreported the gross receipts from his tree-trimming and removal business, Charley’s Tree Service, DOJ officials said.
From 2014 through 2020, Gonzalez cashed more than $3 million in customer checks instead of depositing them into his business’ bank account, knowing that his return preparer relied on the bank account records when preparing his returns, officials said. In addition, Gonzalez did not tell his return preparer about the cashed checks. As such, the return preparer prepared tax returns that underreported gross receipts from Gonzalez’s business, resulting in a tax loss to the IRS of more than $900,000.
In addition to Gonzalez’s prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks for the Western District of Arkansas ordered Gonzalez to serve one year of supervised release and pay approximately $1.4 million in restitution to the United States and the State of Arkansas.