An owner of a dental management company in Michigan accused of mischaracterizing personal expenses as business expenses from the practices he operated has pleaded guilty, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kerry Christian Heuhs, 57, of Holt, MI, pleaded guilty to tax evasion. He will be sentenced later. Heuhs, who owns companies that operate two practices in Lansing, MI, faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, according to a press release dated January 8 from the U.S. Attorney Office for the Western District of Michigan.
"Motivated by greed, Heuhs consistently lied on his tax returns, using his businesses as a way to hide his personal spending and decrease his tax responsibility," Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller of the IRS' Detroit field office criminal investigation unit said in the press release.
During an audit before 2016, the IRS informed Heuhs that it found he was reportedly mischaracterizing personal expenses as business expenses and failing to report certain income in his personal tax returns.
As part of his guilty plea, Heuhs admitted that between 2016 and 2021 he continued to underreport joint taxable income that he and his wife received from his practices and continued to mischaracterize personal expenses as business expenses on his personal tax returns, according to the press release. Furthermore, Heuhs admitted that during that same time frame he did not report certain business income, understated gross business receipts, and overstated deductions in connection with the business tax returns that he filed on behalf of his companies.
