Clearwater Man Owes $810K In Taxes Pleads Guilty To Charges: U.S. DOJ

TAMPA, FL — A Clearwater man pleaded guilty to charges related to owing the Internal Revenue Service more than $810,000 in back taxes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Terence Taylor pleaded “guilty to obstructing and impeding the administration of [IRS] laws for actions seeking to defeat the collection of back taxes he owed,” the department said.

He faces a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison.

Taylor was sentenced in 2012 for failing to file his income taxes for several years while he lived in the Northern District of New York, according to the plea agreement. He was required to pay the more than $810,000 tax debt during the term of his sentence.

For more than seven years, continuing after he moved to Florida, Taylor tried to prevent the IRS from collecting those taxes. During those years, he hid assets from the IRS, placed other asserts and income in the names of alter egos or other people, such as his wife, and used money that he could have used to pay off his back taxes to purchase assets including boats, jewelry, and a home in Palm Harbor, the DOJ said.

Taylor continued to earn income from his work as a financial consultant during those years after 2012. He used that income for numerous personal purposes and expenses and only minimally paid his tax debt to the IRS during that time, the department said.

The IRS made extensive efforts to collect on Taylor’s tax debt between 2004 and 2008. Aside from contacting him, IRS revenue officers also sent him numerous forms asking for his financial situation.

Taylor submitted false or incomplete information on those forms, omitting to record assets he owned such as boats and providing false information about his business and its accounts and dates of operation.

Instead of using it to repay his tax debt, Taylor used his business income and bank accounts after 2012 to pay for a large number of personal expenses, including marina and yacht club expenses, boat expenses, and jewelry purchases, the DOJ said.

In February 2017, Taylor used income that he had earned from his business to buy a $73,000 boat, which he titled in his wife’s trying to keep the asset from the IRS' collection effort.

Taylor also failed to file personal income tax returns for several years after his New York sentence had ended.