A Jefferson County businessman has admitted to failing to pay 10 years of employment taxes totaling $774,081. He used the money that he did not turn over to the IRS to pay for business operational expenses and personal expenditures including food, travel, retail purchases and credit card bills, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
Danny L. Nickelson, 51, who lives in the Jefferson County portion of Pacific, on Feb. 11, pleaded guilty to two federal counts of failure to pay over trust fund taxes. He has agreed to repay the money to the IRS and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, court documents show.
The U.S. District’s Attorney Office reported Nickelson may be sentenced to up to five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of up to $250,000.
According to the guilty plea, Nickelson failed to account for and pay IRS employment taxes for General Physiotherapy and Tomichi Industries for tax years 2013 through 2022.
Before Nickelson sold General Physiotherapy, a manufacturer and distributor of massage and percussion devices used in medicine and physical therapy, in 2022, he withheld money from employees’ checks for Social Security and Medicare taxes and federal income taxes. However, he did not pay that money to the IRS, the guilty plea said.
Nickelson did the same thing at Tomichi Industries, a small plastic distributor and supplier for General Physiotherapy, for tax years 2013 through 2015. Nickelson was sole shareholder of Tomichi, according to the guilty plea.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.