A Danbury roofing contractor who ran his books off handwritten notes for years will spend the next two years on federal probation, the first six months of it confined to his home (via U.S. Department of Justice). Mark Edwards, 61, was sentenced Oct. 28 in New Haven by U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell, who also ordered a $25,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.
Edwards owns Mark Edwards Roofing and Siding LLC, a roofing and construction outfit he's run since about 1998, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut. He pleaded guilty back on March 25 to a single count of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return, a charge that carries up to three years in prison. He waived indictment, meaning the case went forward on a charge filed by prosecutors rather than one returned by a grand jury.
The conduct itself wasn't elaborate. Prosecutors say that beginning no later than 2018, Edwards stopped keeping accurate business records and didn't do any real bookkeeping. At tax time, he handed his preparer handwritten figures for income and expenses, and those numbers came in well under what the business actually took in.
Over five tax years, 2019 through 2023, the government says that added up to at least $1.3 million in gross receipts left off his federal returns. The resulting tax loss to the IRS was $368,334.
Edwards has already paid back that full $368,334, the office said. That doesn't close the book, though. The sentencing announcement notes he still faces substantial civil penalties and interest on top of the repayment, and the court-ordered fine is a separate bill.
After his plea in March, Edwards was released on a $50,000 bond while he awaited sentencing, according to the earlier plea announcement, which the IRS also published on its own criminal investigation news page. The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher W. Schmeisser.
The details that stand out for anyone running a small shop are the ones about process, not secrecy. There's no allegation in the release of offshore accounts, shell companies or a second set of books. What prosecutors describe is a long-running business with no reliable record of what came in, and a tax preparer working from numbers jotted down by the owner. The preparer isn't accused of anything; the figures they were given were the problem.
That's a setup plenty of small trade businesses will recognize, especially ones that grew up doing residential work where a lot of jobs end with a check on the kitchen counter. The IRS is blunt about where that leaves the owner. On its recordkeeping guidance for small businesses, the agency says any system is fine as long as it clearly shows income and expenses, and that the taxpayer carries the burden of proof. For gross receipts, it points to deposit records for cash and credit sales, receipt books, invoices and 1099 forms as the supporting paper.
The IRS's Taxpayer Advocate Service adds another piece: the agency catches a lot of underreporting by matching W-2s and 1099s against returns, but some income, including cash, may never generate one of those forms. When that happens, it's on the business owner to track and report it.
Why it matters for Contractors
Edwards got probation, not prison, after repaying the tax. But he's still a 61-year-old contractor with a federal conviction, a $25,000 fine, community service, months of home detention and penalties and interest yet to be settled. That's a steep price for a bookkeeping habit.
For a one-truck or five-person shop, the fix is boring and cheap compared with that. Run every job payment, check or cash, through a business account, invoice every job, and use real accounting software or a bookkeeper instead of a notepad. If your accountant is building your return from numbers you wrote down from memory, that's the warning sign this case puts in plain view.
And don't assume a job is invisible because the customer didn't send a 1099. Under IRS guidance, it's still income, and it's still yours to report.