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Area roofer under-reported taxes by more than a half million, IRS says

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By Justin McClelland, Staff Writer Updated 8:43 AM Tuesday, May 17, 2011

CINCINNATI — A former Lebanon roofer faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to filing false federal tax returns, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman said.

Philip Hines, 38, appeared before Senior U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati and plead guilty to lying about how much he earned while owning Hines Roofing in Lebanon between 2003 and 2006, said Special Agent Craig Casserly, spokesman for the IRS.

Hines’s own financial record listed that he made more than $1.2 million between 2003 and 2006, Casserly said. However, in his federal tax returns, Hines claimed to have made just under $663,000, under-reporting his actual gross income by more than $546,000.

Hines told some private owners to pay him in cash or checks made out to him and not his business in an attempt to conceal how much he really was making as a roofer, Casserly said. If paid by check, Hines would cash the check at his customer’s bank, not his own, to circumvent paper trails of money earned.

Hines also would make the notation “Cash no Taxes” on certain invoices in order to identify which business income he was attempting to conceal from the IRS.

Hines faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 30.

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