Holt Man Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion

<_w3a_listitem listvalue="Choose an item."><_w3a_listitem listvalue="GRAND RAPIDS" datavalue="GRAND RAPIDS"><_w3a_listitem listvalue="KALAMAZOO" datavalue="KALAMAZOO"><_w3a_listitem listvalue="MARQUETTE" datavalue="MARQUETTE"><_w3a_listitem listvalue="LANSING" datavalue="LANSING"> LANSING - U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten today announced that Kerry Christian Heuhs, 57, of Holt pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Heuhs is scheduled to be sentenced on a future date and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

"Those who fail to pay their fair share of taxes not only cheat the government out of much needed revenue that finances our military, health programs, and public works projects, but also cheat their fellow citizens who are forced to carry more than their fair share of the burden," said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten. "My office will hold accountable individuals and businesses that willfully violates our tax laws."

Heuhs owns management companies that operate two family dental practices in the greater Lansing area. According to court documents, the IRS informed Heuhs, during an audit before 2016, that he mischaracterized personal expenses as business expenses and failed to report certain income in his personal tax returns. As part of his guilty plea, Heuhs admitted that for years after the IRS audit-specifically, between 2016 and 2021-he continued to underreport joint taxable income that he and his wife received from Heuhs's dental management practices, and continued to mischaracterize personal expenses as business expenses, on his personal tax returns. Heuhs further admitted that, between 2016 and 2019, he did not report certain business income, understated gross business receipts, and overstated deductions in connection with the business tax returns that he filed on behalf of his dental management companies.

"Over the course of three years, Kerry Heuhs defrauded the American taxpayer by not paying his fair share. Motivated by greed, Heuhs consistently lied on his tax returns, using his businesses as a way to hide his personal spending and decrease his tax responsibility," said Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller, Detroit Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation. "Today's plea should serve as a stark reminder that criminals, such as Heuhs, will be held accountable for their brazen fraud."

IRS Criminal Investigation and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are investigating this case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Townshend is prosecuting it.

# # #