Trucking company owners sentenced for failure to pay more than $400k in payroll taxes

A married couple who owned trucking businesses in Nebraska have been sentenced for avoiding to pay payroll taxes.

On Tuesday, March 21, William H. White, 55, and Sarah A. White, 40, husband and wife, formerly of Roca, Neb., were sentenced for failure to pay employment tax that was withheld from employees’ paychecks.

William White was sentenced to one year and one day imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Sarah White was sentenced to three years of probation and a fine of $10,000. Each was ordered to pay $426,047.75 restitution but was credited for payments they had made previously totaling that same amount.

“Business owners have a significant duty to collect and turn over all IRS withholding taxes,” Thomas F. Murdock, special agent in charge at the IRS Criminal Investigation, St. Louis Field Office, said in a statement. “Those who fail to do so gain an unfair competitive advantage. The failure to abide by IRS laws will not be tolerated, and those criminals will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to a news release, the Whites owned two trucking companies: B&B Midwest Trucking and 419 LLC. From 2015 to 2018, the two trucking companies withheld federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from employees’ paychecks.

However, the Whites failed to account for those payroll taxes on time and to pay them over to the Internal Revenue Service.

In January 2016, William White failed to pay the IRS nearly $45,000 in payroll taxes for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2015, according to court documents. In total, withheld payroll taxes amounted to more than $144,000 for B&B Midwest Trucking and nearly $300,000 for 419 LLC.

The failure to pay over payroll taxes was not for a lack of funds. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Nebraska, both businesses had sufficient funds to pay the payroll taxes on time. Instead, the Whites used that money to pay other business creditors and to pay for personal expenses.

The Whites pleaded guilty to one count of failure to pay employment tax in October. LL