by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine
The owner of a Rutland roofing company cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of nearly $300,000 by underreporting his annual income for four years, federal court records show.
James Mailhiot Jr., 56, has agreed to plead guilty in federal court to a single count of income tax evasion for 2022, court records note. Part of his penalty will be to pay full restitution. He operates a partnership under the name Jim Mailhiot Roofing, the criminal charge said.
Mailhiot's roofing company had generated about $1.6 million in revenue between 2019 and 2022, court papers note.
He understated his income by $819,897 across those four years and that meant Mailhiot significantly underpaid his taxes by about $296,600, court records show.
Mailhiot underreported his annual income between $70,545 and $351,251 during each of the four years, according to his signed plea agreement. He provided false figures to his accountant for both his income earned and expenses incurred, the criminal charge said.
That means he owed between $19,164 and $138,454 for each of those years, the 10-page signed agreement notes.
It was unclear what the money he kept from the IRS was used for by Mailhiot. Multiple attempts to reach him at the business were unsuccessful.
Mailhiot is due to formally plead guilty on Dec. 4 when he appears before U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Lanthier in Rutland.
Court records show he has agreed to waive formal indictment by a federal grand jury and will allow Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples to proceed by filing his own charge.
By cooperating early, Mailhiot hopes to get credit for acceptance of responsibility when the final sentence is imposed. The plea agreement calls for a penalty at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines.
Mailhiot faces up to 5 years in prison, up to 3 years of supervised release when freed and up to a $100,000 fine.
He will be required to file new, accurate tax returns for the four years, as part of the signed plea agreement.
Mailhiot will not be prosecuted for any other criminal offenses known by the government pertaining to avoiding his taxes, the plea agreement said.
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