THE TAXMAN COMETH—On September 6, 2024, the IRS filed a criminal complaint against 67-year-old Kenneth Marston, a cell site contractor, for not paying taxes to the agency. Instead, he paid his employees as independent contractors. He pleaded guilty on October 4, 2024, and will be sentenced on January 3, 2025.
Kenneth Marston, 67, a business owner from Kingston, Massachusetts, has pleaded guilty to willfully failing to collect, account for, and pay over payroll taxes owed by his companies, Bowmar Steel Industries Inc. and Teleconstructors Inc., located in Hanson. This plea comes after a multi-year investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, following allegations that Marston deliberately withheld payroll tax payments from the IRS over nearly four years.
Marston, who owned and operated Bowmar Steel, a steel fabrication business, and Teleconstructors, which provides cellular tower installation services, was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes from employee paychecks. However, from March 2015 to December 2018, Marston’s companies failed to deduct or remit these taxes, covering over $3.8 million in wages. According to court documents, this failure resulted in an estimated tax loss of between $550,000 and $1.5 million to the IRS.
Documents from the case reveal that Marston paid employees by check without withholding the required payroll taxes. Furthermore, his companies failed to file the quarterly Employer’s Federal Tax Return (Form 941). Instead, Marston classified employees as independent contractors, effectively dodging tax responsibilities.
Marston’s guilty plea puts him at risk of significant penalties, including a maximum prison term of five years, monetary fines, restitution, and a period of supervised release. His sentencing is scheduled for January 3, and a federal district court judge will determine the sentence based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case, prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s Tax Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, was led by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg and Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy. The charges against Marston fall under Title 26, United States Code, Section 7202, which penalizes willful failure to collect and pay employment taxes.
