A 51-year-old Wooster woman has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after admitting she failed to turn over employment taxes withheld from workers' paychecks. Brenna Butdorf pleaded guilty to Failing to Truthfully Account for and Pay Over Trust Fund Taxes, and a judge also ordered three years of supervised release once her prison term ends.
The sentence was announced in a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio, which said Butdorf had pleaded guilty before being sentenced. According to a post from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Ohio
, prosecutors say Butdorf issued payments to herself using funds that had been withheld from employees' paychecks, rather than making the quarterly employment tax payments required by law. The office, headquartered in Cleveland and posting under the handle NDOHNews, said the post referenced an IRS Criminal Investigation into the case.
Prosecutors allege Butdorf used the proceeds to purchase a Florida condo, pay for private camp dues, cover shooting club dues, and take vacations, according to the same office's post. Federal officials have not released additional details here about the total tax loss involved, the business or employer connected to the case, or the specific time period the unpaid taxes covered.
How the Charge Works Under Federal Law
Butdorf's offense traces to a federal law found at 26 U.S.C. § 7202, titled Willful failure to collect or pay over tax. Employers are required to withhold payroll taxes from workers' paychecks and forward that money to the government on a quarterly basis; when business owners instead keep or spend those withheld funds, they can face federal prosecution.
Cases like this are not isolated to Wooster. In a comparable Northern Ohio case, Michael Roberts, 38, of Mentor, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of failing to account for and pay employment taxes, according to Cleveland 19 News.
A Regional Pattern in Withheld Payroll Taxes
Roberts was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $322,718.56 in restitution, the station reported. He was the executive director and co-owner of Progressive Alternatives, an in-home care business serving Lake and Ashtabula Counties, and the outlet noted that his business did not submit its required quarterly employment tax payments.
