Alaskan Husband And Wife Plead Guilty To Willful Failure To Pay Taxes

A husband and wife pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of willfully failing to pay their income taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder for the District of Alaska.

According to court documents, Archie W. Demmert III, 57, and Roseann L. Demmert, 60, both of Klawock, Alaska, held commercial fishing permits and earned six-figure incomes in 2013 and 2014 from commercial fishing, on which they failed to timely pay the required income taxes due.  In addition, from 2006 to 2012, the Demmerts also did not timely pay in full the taxes they owed to the Internal Revenue Service.  As a result, the total tax loss to the IRS arising from their conduct is more than $300,000.

Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess scheduled sentencing for October 4, 2018.  The Demmerts each face a statutory maximum sentence of two years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Schroder thanked special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Lori Hendrickson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts can be found on the division’s website.