Tax preparation twist: Help others. Skip your own.
Tax preparation expert accused of avoiding paying his own New York state taxes.
An unidentified woman with a calculator fills out her tax forms at a New York City post office in this 2006 file photo. On Jan. 21, 2011, the New York Tax Department announced that the owner of several tax preparation businesses had been charged with tax fraud for failing to pay his own state taxes for six years.
Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press/Newscom/File
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
Regulators say an accountant who owns several tax-prep businesses neglected to pay his own state taxes for six years.
The state Tax Department said Friday that 44-year-old Eric Fecci of Katonah, N.Y., has been charged with tax fraud and failure to file from 2003-2008. It said he filed his returns only after the department's investigation began.
If convicted, Fecci could be sentenced to up to four years in prison on each of four counts.
The department said Fecci also owes the state nearly $21,000 for other tax liabilities dating back to 2001.
Defense attorney William Aronwald would not comment.
The department said Fecci owned and operated several accounting and tax preparation businesses in Somers.