NC orthodontist sentenced to prison for tax evasion

James E. MacAlpine, DDS, was ordered to serve a statutory maximum term of 60 months, followed by three years of supervised release. He will also pay nearly $2.2 million in restitution to the IRS, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. federal prison sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

Dr. MacAlpine stopped filing and paying his U.S. federal taxes in 1996, according to the U.S. attorney's office. While the IRS attempted to contact him, he refused to meet with revenue agents or produce documentation showing he did not owe taxes. When agents tried to contact Dr. MacAlpine's financial institutions for records on his practice, he filed a series of legal challenges against these requests. The United States District Court dismissed these lawsuits.

Dr. MacAlpine then sent several IRS personnel a "Declaration of Political Intentions" in May 2006. He claimed to revoke his U.S. citizenship and suggested that he no longer owed any taxes to the U.S. government.

When this failed, and IRS collections personnel attempted to garnish the bank accounts Dr. MacAlpine had been using for his personal and business affairs, he would attempt to shield the money by moving it to new accounts or an account under the name of a shell corporation, according to the U.S. attorney's office. By 2014, his tax debt to the U.S. government had grown to approximately $2 million.

On February 4, he pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Dr. MacAlpine was sentenced on August 20. He will be ordered to report to a yet-to-be designated U.S Bureau of Prisons facility.