Lycoming County man sentenced on tax charges

 

Date: Jan. 27, 2025 

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

WILLIAMSPORT — The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann sentenced James Michael Barr of Cogan Station, Pennsylvania, to a time-served sentence plus 2 years of probation including 10 months of home confinement for failing to pay employment taxes owed by his construction company.

According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Barr pleaded guilty in July 2024, to failing to account for and pay over employment taxes owed by Barr Construction from 2017 through 2020. During that time period, in addition to a normal paycheck from which taxes were withheld, Barr also paid his employees in cash and did not withhold federal taxes from the cash payroll or remit taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service.

“Employers have a responsibility to their employees to withhold the proper amount of taxes and pay those taxes over to the IRS,” said Amy MacNeely, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Philadelphia Field Office (IRS-CI).

The sentence also imposed a $5,000 fine on Barr and required him to make restitution to the I.R.S. in the amount of $337,000 plus civil penalties.

This case was investigated by IRS-CI. Assistant United States Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur prosecuted the case.

IRS-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. IRS-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.