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03/21/2013 12:00 AM

Failure to Pay Taxes Lands Northford Man in Prison


David B. Fein, United States AttorNey for the District of Connecticut, announced that Philip Ney, 62, of Northford, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Warren W. Eginton in Bridgeport to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release, for failing to pay taxes on more than $640,000 in income.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Ney owns and operates Empire Restoration Company in Northford, which provides residential and commercial roofing services, as well as snow plowing services. From 2004 through 2008, part of the income derived from those services was deposited into Ney’s business checking account and part was deposited into his passbook savings accounts. When preparing his federal tax returns for the 2004 to 2008 tax years, Ney’s tax return preparers asked him to report all of his business income. However, Ney did not provide his tax preparers with information related to business income that he had deposited into three savings accounts. For the 2004 through 2008 tax years, Ney failed to report on his tax returns a total of $640,581 in income that had been deposited into his savings accounts.

On November 26, 2012, Ney waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false federal income tax return. In pleading guilty, Ney admitted that on April 15, 2009, he signed and filed his 2008 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, which falsely reported Schedule C gross business receipts of $529,934 and the amount of tax due of $28,544. In fact, Ney’s actual gross business receipts for 2008 were $771,615 and he should have paid $107,377 in federal income tax.

As part of the resolution of this case, Ney has agreed to pay $192,671 in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, for the 2004 through 2008 tax years.

Ney was ordered to report to prison on June 3, 2013.

This matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States AttorNey Peter S. Jongbloed.