Failure To Pay Taxes Lands Delco Mushroom Farmer Federal Prison Stint

GARNET VALLEY, PA — A Delaware County mushroom farmer will spend nearly four years in federal prison after being convicted of tax crimes, authorities said Friday.

United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said Donna Fecondo, 63, of Garnet Valley, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution after admitting to not paying payroll taxes to the IRS.

Authorities said she failed to pay about $600,000.

Fecondo, who was the president and sole owner of Joseph Silvestri & Son mushroom farm, pleaded guilty in 2022.

Joseph Silvestri & Son was a business operating a mushroom farm, with its principal place of business in Garnet Valley.

As the sole owner of the farm, Fecondo was responsible for collecting, accounting for, and paying over employment taxes. The business paid its employees weekly and was required by the IRS to electronically deposit its payroll taxes weekly. Fecondo withheld the taxes from her employees’ pay but did not remit the taxes to the IRS, authorities said.

Fecondo did not timely file Forms 943, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees, for tax years 2013 through 2016, according to authorities.

Instead, Fecondo filed the Forms 943 for tax years 2013 through 2016 in or about July 2017, well after the due dates and after the Internal Revenue Service had contacted her about her failure to pay employment taxes and her failure to file returns, authorities said.

Although Fecondo reported substantial payroll taxes due and owing on the Form 943 for tax years 2013 through 2016 that she made in July 2017, and although Joseph Silvestri & Son withheld employment taxes from the farm's employees' wages, Fecondo did not pay over any employment taxes to the IRS for those tax years, according to authorities.

In total, for tax years 2013 through 2016, Fecondo should have withheld and remitted to the IRS a total of approximately $1,255,068.94 in employment taxes, but instead she remitted nothing. Of this amount, Fecondo should have withheld and remitted to the IRS a total of approximately $599,159.94 related to tax years 2015 and 2016, but instead remitted nothing, authorities said.

Fecondo also failed to file her 2015 and 2016 personal income tax returns, even though she knew that she was required by law to file a tax return for each of those years, authorities said.

Further, Fecondo failed to file corporate tax returns on behalf of Joseph Silvestri & Son for tax years 2015 and 2016.