CANISTOTA -- A Canistota business owner was charged Tuesday with six felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses.
Steve Whitman, 38, allegedly failed to pay sales taxes or file sales tax returns for three months in 2017 and operated Affordable Lawn and Snow after his sales tax license had been revoked, as recently as July 21.
If convicted of all charges, Whitman could be incarcerated for up to 18 years.
According to court documents, a revenue agent from the South Dakota Department of Revenue's Business Tax Division searched tax records and reportedly found that Whitman had failed to pay sales taxes and file sales tax returns for the reporting periods ending April 30, May 31 and June 30, 2017 and that he had engaged in business without an active tax license on Nov. 11 and Dec. 6, 2018, and March 8, April 17 and July 21, 2019.
Whitman was charged for each of those alleged offenses and was charged with two additional felony charges of failure to pay a sales tax twice in the 12-month reporting period ending Aug. 19, 2017, and failure to file a sales tax return twice in the same time period.
