Tampa Bay Man Sentenced To Federal Prison For Tax Evasion

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday today sentenced Steven Headden Young (55, St. Petersburg) to 21 months in federal prison for tax evasion. He was also ordered to make restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $509,455, and to file his corrected tax returns for tax years 2007 through 2011.

According to court documents, Young evaded a substantial portion of his personal federal income taxes for the years 2007 through 2011 by falsifying expenses to negate his income. Young, who prepared and filed his own tax returns, created bogus business expenditures and deducted them from his Schedule C income. He provided the IRS with a false lease agreement and false invoices between his real estate company and a sham corporation, purportedly based in the Dominican Republic.

Young also falsely filed as head-of-household (HOH) to take advantage of the tax benefits of the HOH filing status when he was indeed married. HOH provides for less taxes and higher credits than when filing as single, married and filing jointly, or married and filing separately. Young made false statements to the IRS about his marital status, claiming he was single, when he was married and living with his wife. 

Young also interfered with the IRS audit and tax assessment of his personal federal income taxes by attempting to intercept third-party records that had been subpoenaed by the IRS from Bank of America (BOA). Young fabricated a letter from the IRS to BOA in an attempt to redirect bank records that had been intended for the IRS to another address, which had been opened by Young in the name of an IRS employee.  

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kelley C. Howard-Allen.