Orange Landscaper Pleads Guilty To Tax Offense: Feds

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Thomas Capecelatro, 62, of Orange waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of willful failure to account for and pay over more than $66,000 in employment taxes, federal authorities announced.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Capecelatro has owned and operated an unincorporated landscaping business known as Chestnut Ridge Landscaping (“Chestnut Ridge”) since approximately 1984.

From approximately October 2010 through 2013, Capecelatro caused Chestnut Ridge to withhold $42,322.64 in payroll taxes from its employees but failed to truthfully account for and pay over that money to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said in a news release.

During that same period, Capecelatro failed to pay $24,089.28 in federal employment taxes and $1,347.54 in federal unemployment taxes that Chestnut Ridge owed, federal officials said. Chestnut Ridge also failed to file quarterly employment tax returns (Forms 941) with the IRS, officials said.

The total tax loss to the U.S. Treasury from October 2010 through 2013 was $67,759.46, officials said.

Capecelatro will be sentenced on Feb. 21, 2018, and he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $10,000. Capecelatro made restitution of $67,759.46 to the IRS in May 2017.