Tax evader fined, imprisoned and ordered to pay restitution

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa tax evader has been fined, imprisoned and ordered to pay more than $70,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Federal prosecutors say 49-year-old Michael Collins, of McClelland, was sentenced May 11 in U.S. District Court in Council Bluffs. He was given a year and a day behind bars and fined nearly $35,000. In December he’d pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors say Collins didn’t initially didn’t report around $289,000 in income in 2006 and then filed an amended return but didn’t pay the tax due. He also concealed more than $5.5 million in gross receipts for more than 10 years from an excavating and trucking company he operated and didn’t pay the taxes owed.

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