Kingsville business owner charged with failing to pay employment taxes

 

Date: April 5, 2024

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Corpus Christi, TX — A Bishop resident has been indicted on 16-counts for failure to pay employment taxes to the IRS, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Timothy Gaines Pollard appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie K. Hampton today at 10 a.m.

According to the indictment, Pollard owned and operated Tim Pollard Construction, a residential remodeling and fence installation business in Kingsville and Bishop. Pollard was allegedly responsible for determining which expenses to pay and exercised control over all aspects of the business.

As owner and operator, Pollard was allegedly held liable for collecting and withholding employment taxes from his employees’ paychecks. Such employment taxes include federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes. It is alleged Pollard withheld these taxes from employees but failed to pay them over to the United States.

The indictment further alleges Pollard diverted corporate funds to cover his personal salary and expenses. Pollard still owes more than $400,000 in employment taxes on behalf of his company’s employees, as alleged in the indictment.

If convicted, Pollard faces up to five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine for each count of in the indictment.

The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation (CI). Assistant United States Attorney John Marck is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.