Trucking company owner sentenced in tax evasion case

An Iowa trucking company owner has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for tax evasion and ordered to pay restitution and a fine totaling more than $105,000.

Michael Collins, 49, of McClelland, Iowa, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion on Dec. 21. He was sentenced on May 11 to one year and one day of imprisonment for tax evasion and ordered to pay $70,274.14 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and a fine of $34,770. Collins will serve a three year term of supervised release following his prison term.

Collins, in addition to being a part-owner in a real estate development firm, owned a excavating and trucking company that generated $5.5 million in gross receipts from 2006 to the present. That was in addition to $289,000 he received in 2006 from his real estate business.

According to a news release from the southern Iowa office of the U.S. Attorney, Collins attempted to evade payments of tax liabilities on his trucking operation by registering the business and bank accounts under names other than his own. He also did not report income from his real estate business.

Collins also filed fraudulent documents with the IRS, according to the release, claiming to have no gross business receipts for the company and falsely told IRS employees that his only source of income was unemployment benefits. He admitted to causing a tax loss of more than $250,000.