Florida Salesman Pleads Guilty to Evading Taxes on More Than $1.5 Million in Income

A Fort Lauderdale, Florida resident pleaded guilty today to tax evasion, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to documents filed with the court, Thomas Daly, 53, admitted that he evaded paying taxes on more than $1.5 million in income that he earned from 2002 to 2015. Daly further admitted that, except for the 2007 tax year, he has not filed an income tax return since 2002. Daly worked for a Fort Lauderdale company selling hurricane-resistant windows to residential homeowners in South Florida. In August 2009, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) notified Daly of its intent to levy his wages because of his failure to pay taxes. To obstruct the IRS’s collection efforts, Daly established his own business, South Florida Home Marketing Inc. (SFHM), and changed his employment status from an employee to an independent contractor. Daly listed himself as the director of SFHM and opened a business bank account in its name. Due to Daly’s change in employment status, his employer paid SFHM directly and the IRS’s attempts to levy Daly’s wages were thwarted.

From approximately August 2009 through April 2017, Daly used SFHM’s bank account to pay for personal expenses, including rent, cigars, international travel, entertainment, his girlfriend’s cosmetic surgery, jewelry and a boat. He also falsely classified numerous personal expenses as business expenses on the memo line of the checks drawn on the SFHM bank account. Daly admitted that he made these false entries with the intent to claim false business expense deductions and evade the assessment of his income taxes. Daly admitted that his actions caused a tax loss of more than $351,241.

Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18. Daly faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg commended special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Charles M. Edgar, Jr. and Michael C. Boteler of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

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