West Virginia Business Owner Charged with Employment Tax Offenses and Not Filing Personal Tax Returns

A federal grand jury in Charleston, West Virginia, returned an indictment today charging a West Virginia man with not paying employment taxes and not filing his personal tax returns.

According to the indictment, since 1994, Dean Dawson, of Hurricane, owned and operated Real Property Consulting Group LLC, a real estate appraisal business. The indictment charges that from the third quarter of 2018 to 2023, Dawson did not pay to the IRS the Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes that were withheld from employees’ paychecks or file quarterly tax returns reporting those withholdings, as required by law. Though Dawson allegedly provided his employees with Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, he did not file those forms with the Social Security Administration. Dawson allegedly used his business bank account to pay his personal expenses and directed funds to his wife who was not an employee. The indictment further alleges that Dawson did not file personal tax returns from 2018 to 2023. 

Dawson was charged with 19 counts of failing to collect and pay over employment taxes and six counts of willfully failing to file personal tax returns tax returns. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each employment tax count and a maximum penalty of one year in prison for each count of failure to file a tax return. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney William S. Thompson for the Southern District of Western Virginia made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Brian E. Flanaghan and Rebecca A. Caruso of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Storage for the Southern District of West Virginia are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.