IRS News Bulletin
Ohio Town Board Trustee Negligent in Remitting IRS Payments
The Ohio Township Board discovered that trustee Lorraine Wittenbraker did not make payments to the IRS and Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (PERF) this year. This resulted in nearly $30,000 in late fees.
The Board members only realized this when Indiana PERF sent them a formal notice last week.
Last Wednesday, Wittenbraker apologized to the Board and Ohio township taxpayers for her error and stated she did not intentionally mismanage the township’s funds nor use it for her own use.
When asked what happened to the money, Wittenbraker said it had gone into different accounts. The Board said that PERF had given Wittenbraker a deadline to get caught up on the payments by October 1. If she did so, PERF would waive nearly $30,000 in late fees. But Wittenbraker failed to meet the deadline. When asked by 14 News why she did not pay by the deadline, she said it was due to a miscommunication.
In addition, Whittenbraker did not pay state and federal taxes also. However, she said she will pay the IRS by the end of the year and that she had already mailed the PERF check.
The Board is waiting to find out the total amount of late fees and penalties they will incur because of this. If there are late fees, Whittenbraker said she will reimburse the Board out of her own pocket.
On its part, PERF said they will review the late fees if they receive the check and it clears.
Whittenbraker ends her four-year term of service as a trustee and is up for re-election in the November second ballot.
Couple and Accomplices try to Defraud the IRS
A man from the Dominican Republic, his ex-girlfriend and an accomplice schemed to defraud the IRS of more than $1.2 million was given a 4 ½ year jail sentence and ordered to compensate the government for $97,748. This was because the IRS discovered the ruse and curtailed the losses of the government to less than $98,000.
Angel Collazo and his then girlfriend Aphleen Quinonez filed 288 false tax returns over a 2 year period between January 2007 and December 2008. These phony tax forms were made to claim for tax refunds. In addition, they also made false W-2 forms, all of which were mailed to the IRS. They had the help of an accomplice, Antonio Rodriguez-Revera who obtained the personal details of Puerto Rico residents.
The tax returns bore addresses supplied by postal worker Tyree Harrell who gave addresses on his mail route to Rodriguez-Revera who in turn gave them to Collazo and Quinonez.
Collazo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, possession of fraudulent immigration and illegal identification documents and identity theft. Harrell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government and theft of mail, was sentenced to a year and a day, and ordered to pay more than $41,000 and to never work for the Postal Service again.
Rodriguez-Rivera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government and to drug and gun offenses. He is awaiting sentencing. Quinonez has been on the lam since her indictment
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