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Fort Myers man gets prison for not paying 900K+ in employment taxes

WGCU | By WGCU Staff
Published March 18, 2024 at 4:04 PM EDT

A Fort Myers man was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison for failing to pay over taxes that he withheld from his employees’ paychecks.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, Timothy Meade, of Fort Myers, operated a prison phone call service under several business names.

From 2011 through 2021, he withheld taxes from his employees’ paychecks but did not pay over to the IRS the full amount of the taxes he withheld.

He also did not pay the business’ portion of his employees’ Social Security and Medicare taxes. The IRS attempted to collect the taxes, but Meade changed the call service’s names and bank accounts to thwart the IRS’ collection efforts.

In total, Meade caused a tax loss of $971,130 to the IRS.

In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Sheri Polster Chappell for the Middle District of Florida ordered Meade to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $971,130 in restitution to the United States.

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