Tampa Man Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Steven Headden Young has pleaded guilty  to tax evasion. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and has agreed to pay full restitution, penalties, and taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to court documents, Young evaded a substantial portion of his personal federal income taxes for the years 2007 through 2011 by falsifying expenses to negate his income. Young, who prepared and filed his own tax returns, created bogus business expenditures and deducted them from his Schedule C income. He also falsely filed as head-of-household (HOH) to take advantage of the tax benefits of HOH filing status when he was married. This status provides for lower taxes and higher credits than filing single, married filing jointly, or married filing separately.  Taking into account payments made by and tax refunds paid to Young, he owes more than $250,000, but less than $550,000, in taxes for the years 2007 through 2011.

Young also made false statements to the IRS about his marital status, claiming that he was single, when he was married and living with his wife. Further, Young interfered with the IRS audit and tax assessment of his personal federal income taxes in an attempt to intercept third party records the IRS had subpoenaed by the IRS from Bank of America (BOA) by fabricating a letter from the IRS to BOA in an attempt to redirect these bank records.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kelley C. Howard-Allen.