Ridley Township's Former Tax Collector Gets One Year In Federal Prison For Tax Evasion

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP, PA — A former elected municipal tax official will be spending one year in a federal penitentiary for committing tax fraud, authorities announced this week.

Rosezanna Czwalina, 70, of Morton, Pa., was given a sentence of one year in jail, one year of supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $112,846 after she pleaded guilty to five counts of filing materially false tax returns in connection with a scheme to avoid paying taxes, according to the Unites States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, sitting in Philadelphia, handed down the sentence on Wednesday.

Czwalina, who was the elected tax collector and treasurer for Ridley Township from 2009 until she resigned in 2021, was authorized to retain, as a supplement to her income, fees paid for tax certifications and generation of duplicate tax bills, but she failed to report those retained fees as income on her federal tax returns in 2014 through 2018, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.

She pleaded guilty to her crimes in June 2021 in federal court in Philadelphia.

"As the township's own tax collector, Czwalina well knew the importance of tax revenue to the proper functioning of government," Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Division, said in a statement. "And yet, for years, she knowingly shorted the federal system and its taxpayers by failing to report her true income. Elected officials must be held to the highest of ethical standards when their actions cross into criminality, the FBI and our partners won't hesitate to investigate and hold them properly accountable."

U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said that as an elected official responsible for collecting taxes, Czwalina "knew what her obligations were and willfully chose to ignore them."

"Every time someone cheats the tax system, the burden of providing vital services increases on taxpayers who pay their fair share," Williams said in a statement.