Burnsville Restaurant Owners Accused Of Tax Crimes

BURNSVILLE, MN — A south metro restaurant and its owners are accused of dodging tax payments. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office has charged Kehui Yang and Qiuyun Huang, both of Eagan, each with four counts of filing fraudulent sales tax returns and four counts of failure to pay sales tax.

The restaurant itself — Shogun Burnsville Inc. — is charged with four counts of aiding in the filing of false tax returns and four counts of failure to pay sales tax.

Yang and Huang owned and operated the restaurant Shogun Burnsville, Inc. The criminal complaint alleges they intentionally used sales suppression software on their point of sale system to remove thousands of line items from sales receipts in order to underreport their monthly sales and underpay sales tax from March 2014 through June 2017.

They deprived the state of nearly $43,000 in sales tax revenue, according to investigators.

"The use of sales suppression software harms all businesses that report and pay their fair share of taxes," said Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly in a statement.

"These charges represent the department’s growing ability to recognize when these illegal products are being used and hold those who you use them accountable."

Automated sales suppression devices and software, sometimes known as "zappers," delete parts of cash transactions after the fact, creating a second set of books that allows a business to report smaller sales and illegally keep some of the tax that the customer paid.

Minnesota’s sales tax is a "trust tax." Customers pay the tax at the time of the sale with the expectation that businesses will remit it to the government on their behalf.

Each tax-related felony charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both, according to a news release.

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