Tuesday, November 22, 2022

A federal jury yesterday convicted a Clarksville, Tennessee man of filing false tax returns that omitted income he earned from his business, announced U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David Haley, 65, of Clarksville, owned Haley & Associates Mechanical Contractors, a heating and plumbing business. From 2014 through 2017, Haley & Associates was hired as the subcontractor on commercial projects in middle Tennessee and was paid more than $1,000,000 for each year. Generally, the contractors that hired Haley & Associates paid via check and reported the payments to the IRS via Forms 1099-MISC as non-employee compensation. Even though Haley personally received a portion of the company’s earnings as business income and nonemployee compensation, Haley reported earning no income on his 2014-2017 tax returns.  Haley’s failure to report that income on his tax returns for tax years 2015 through 2017 caused the IRS a loss of approximately $186,290.

Haley was convicted of three counts of filing false tax returns for tax years 2015, 2016, and 2017.  The jury acquitted Haley of one count of filing a false tax return relating to his 2014 tax filing.

Haley will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count of filing false tax returns. U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. will determine any sentence after consideration of  the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.