Plainview Man Sentenced for Filing a False Tax Return

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Joseph T. Pearce, II, 41, of Plainview, Nebraska, was sentenced on September 20, 2023, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for filing a false tax return. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Pearce to four years’ probation. Judge Buescher also order Pearce to pay $200,411.33 in restitution.

Pearce owned and operated a painting and maintenance business between 2014 and 2018 in Nebraska and Texas. Pearce’s tax returns for 2014 through 2018 reported profit from the painting and maintenance business. Pearce signed each of the tax returns under penalties of perjury, declaring that he examined a copy of the tax returns and that they were true, correct, and complete. At the time Pearce made the written declaration for each tax year, Pearce knew the reported income in the tax returns for each tax year was not correct. 

An investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service determined that for tax years 2014 through 2018, Pearce filed tax returns that reported substantially less income than had been actually paid to Pearce’s painting and maintenance business. The Internal Revenue Service’s investigation included interviews of Pearce’s clients and review of Pearce’s financial records. The Internal Revenue Service determined that Pearce’s tax returns failed to report $760,629 in income from between 2014 and 2018. Taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service on the unreported income total $200,411.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations.