Perry County Man Sentenced for Filing False Federal Income Tax Returns

Jackson, TN – Joel Anthony Bunch, 41, of Clifton, Tennessee, has been sentenced to 12 months and a day imprisonment for filing false Federal Individual Tax Returns. U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant for the Western District of Tennessee announced the sentence today.

According to information presented in court, on November 20, 2017, Bunch pled guilty to one count of filing a false U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for tax year 2013. At that time, Bunch owned Bunch Forest Products, located in Clifton, Tennessee, and was the sole person responsible for the business record keeping. Bunch caused his paid tax return preparer to underreport his gross receipts for 2013 by depositing business income into his personal bank account, cashing income checks, and knowingly providing incomplete and inaccurate information to his paid preparer. As a result, Bunch’s 2013 gross receipts were underreported by $27,371, resulting in an additional tax due and owing of $8,361.

Today’s sentencing is based on Bunch underreporting gross receipts on U.S. Corporation Income Tax Returns for the tax years 2010 through 2013, as well as underreporting gross receipts on his Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business on his U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns for tax years 2010 through 2013, in the amount of $555,572, which is outlined in an 8-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Jackson on February 21, 2017, resulting in unreported corporate and individual income tax of $129,527.

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said: "Protection of the United States Treasury is a core value and critical mission for this office and the Department of Justice. Income tax evasion and fraud strike at the very heart of our federal government, and will not be tolerated."

On July 2, 2018, Senior U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson sentenced Bunch to 12 months and a day in federal prison followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $129,527 in restitution to the IRS, a result of his failing to pay taxes on all of his income.

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

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Wilson prosecuted the case for the government.

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