NASHVILLE – A Clarksville, Tennessee, business owner pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to a single count of tax evasion, announced U.S. Attorney Mark Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Andrew Huy Nguyen, 54, the owner of Call it Pho restaurant and Venus Nails Spa, both located in Clarksville, Tennessee, admitted responsibility for a tax loss of more than $428,000.
Nguyen was charged on March 3, 2022, in a criminal Information, which alleged that Nyugen, as the owner of Call it Pho, willfully evaded his responsibility to pay his employer’s share of employment taxes to the IRS by underreporting the wages he paid his Call it Pho employees. He hid from the IRS the true amount of wages he paid his Call it Pho employees by failing to issue some employees W2 Forms, by paying some employees solely in cash, and by paying some employees a combination of 50% check and 50% cash. Nyugen took numerous steps to conceal from the IRS the true amount of wages he paid to his employees, including preparing and issuing 1099 Forms instead of W2 Forms to disguise the wages paid to employees as “nonemployee compensation.” He further disguised the wages by issuing 1099 Forms that falsely made it appear as though those employees worked at another business that he owned, Venus Nails Spa.
For tax years 2017, 2018, and 2019, Nyugen evaded more than $34,000 of the employer’s employment taxes related to Call it Pho.
In addition, Nguyen willfully failed to withhold and pay over to the IRS approximately $78,667 in employment taxes and federal income taxes from his employees’ paychecks at Call it Pho.
Nyugen also issued false 1099 Forms to nail technicians employed at Venus Nails Spa that did not report all the wages he paid them. Nguyen paid Venus employees at least $946,716.24 in cash, which he did not report on the 1099 Forms that he issued to them. This caused his employees to file false tax returns that did not report all their income, which resulted in an additional tax loss of approximately $315,856.
Nguyen faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on September 23, 2022. Nguyen has agreed to pay immediate restitution in the amount of $428,620.12.
This case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn W. Booth is prosecuting the case.
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