Eagan man charged with 22 tax crimes

Apr 01, 2008 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- An Eagan man who ran several commercial residential cleaning businesses in the Twin Cities collected payments from his customers over a five-year period, but failed to remit sales taxes to the state, according to a criminal complaint filed recently in Dakota County District Court.

That's just one of 22 felony tax charges that prosecutors have filed against Stephen Edward Matters.

Matters, 56, faces a battery of charges that also include failing to pay wage and withholding taxes over a four-year period, making sales after the Minnesota Department of Revenue revoked his sales tax permit in 2000, and failing to file or pay personal income tax, the complaint said.

Matters will make his first appearance in court on May 19.

According to the criminal complaint, Matters was the owner and operator of "My Maid" and other cleaning services and had sales of at least $2,413,906 from 1998 to 2005. He did not remit sales taxes in excess of $150,000 to the state, the complaint said.

An investigation by the Minnesota Department of Revenue found that Matters pocketed nearly $55,300 that he withheld from employees' paychecks instead of forwarding the money to the state. The employees did not receive credit for Social Security taxes taken from their checks between 2002 and 2006 because the money had not been remitted, the complaint said.

In the complaint, Matters admitted that he collected sales tax from his customers and used the proceeds for personal expenses. He also admitted that he did not file personal income tax for 10 years and that "he often could not sleep because he was worried about the fact that he had not paid or filed taxes," the complaint said.

Matters faces three counts of failure to file personal income taxes, five counts of failing to pay sales taxes, five counts of failing to pay wage and withholding taxes, three counts of failing to pay individual income tax, three counts of sales after revocation of permit, and two counts of failing to remit sales taxes.

Each felony is punishable by up to five years in prison or up to a $10,000 fine, or both.

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