Pueblo man sentenced for evading income tax

Date: Aug. 28, 2024

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Denver - The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announces that Solomon Paul Garcia, of Pueblo, Colorado, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for tax evasion.

According to the plea agreement, Garcia worked for various employers as a journeyman electrical lineman. Beginning in 2016, and continuing until January of 2020, the defendant willfully avoided paying a substantial amount of income tax by submitting to his employers inaccurate Form W-4s claiming up to 99 allowances or false claims of tax exemptions. During this time, the defendant was only allowed to claim two allowances.

Garcia's filings caused his employers to withhold little, if any, withholding taxes from his earned income. Although the defendant had an opportunity to pay all taxes due and owing for each calendar year by the respective filing deadlines, he did not file a tax return for any of the years in question. This resulted in the evasion of $267,028.50 in federal taxes. Consistent with his plea agreement, the Court ordered Garcia to pay restitution - inclusive of interest and penalties as calculated by the IRS. That amount is in excess of $548,000.

"People who evade their taxes are stealing from all the other taxpayers who pay what they owe. Our office will continue to aggressively prosecute tax evaders," said Acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch.

"Falsifying Form W-4s and claiming up to 99 allowances to avoid paying taxes is not only a crime against the federal government, it also unfairly shifts the tax burden to honest taxpayers," said IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Tom Demeo. "Garcia brazenly attempted to avoid his tax liability and other tax cheats must understand these crimes carry with them severe consequences."

United States District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang sentenced Garcia on Aug. 28, 2024. IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Bradley W. Giles handled the prosecution.

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.