A Yonkers flooring contractor who was relieved of paying $636,000 in taxes eight years ago has been charged with tax evasion for not paying more than $700,000 since then.
Brian K. Murray pleaded guilty to tax evasion on March 27 in U.S. District Court in White Plains, and he was released from custody on posting a $100,000 personal appearance bond.
The charge is based on personal taxes Murray owes on income from a Yonkers flooring company that is not identified in the charging papers.
High Rise Flooring & Construction, of Yonkers, has been associated with a Brian K. Murray, according to property records and state and federal tax liens.
As of June 2016, Murray owed more than $2.5 million, including interest and penalties, for taxes incurred since 2001.
But in 2017, “after largely unsuccessful collection efforts,” the government says, the IRS wrote off $636,000 because the statute of limitations had expired.
In 2018, the IRS focused on the 2011 to 2013 tax years, for which Murray owed nearly $958,000, including interest and penalties, according to the charging papers, and on 2018 to 2022 when he concealed pass-through income from his business.
Murray’s business was organized as an S-Corporation, where corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits flow to the business owner’s personal income tax returns.
Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky says in the charging papers that Murray concealed his income by cashing business income checks totaling about $2.9 million instead of depositing them in the company’s bank account; using the proceeds to pay $751,038 in personal expenses; paying workers off the books; and failing to file correct tax forms.
From 2018 to 2022, according to the government, Murray reported a total of $446 in wage income for two years and no wage income for two years.
Now, the government says, Murray owes more $700,609: including $590,270 for tax years 2011 to 2013 and $110,339 for tax years 2018 to 2021.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 2.
