Danbury business owner sentenced to prison for tax evasion

Date: Nov. 12, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Vanessa R. Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Bill G. Makros of Danbury, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to seven months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for tax evasion.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Makros owned and operated a tree service business known as Budget Tree and Stump Removal Service, LLC. From 2016 through 2020, Makros' business gross receipts totaled $1,426,915, but he concealed his income by receiving customer payments in the form of checks made payable to "cash" or to him personally, and by depositing the checks into bank accounts other than his business bank account. At times, he also cashed check payments and did not deposit the cash into any business or personal accounts. For the 2016 through 2020 tax years, Makros failed to file his federal individual tax returns, and failed to pay taxes totaling $140,694.

In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Makros received two pandemic relief loans totaling $31,200. As part of the application process, Makros submitted IRS Schedule C forms for his business that purported to be part of his tax returns for 2019 and 2020, even though he had not filed tax returns with the IRS for those years. The loans were subsequently forgiven.

Judge Oliver ordered Makros to pay $137,672 in restitution to the IRS.

On July 1, 2024, Makros pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

In 2008, Makros was convicted in Connecticut state court of two counts of failing to pay over sales tax.

Makros, who is released on bond, is required to report to prison on January 7, 2025.

This investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anastasia King.

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.