He owed the IRS $2.2 million. Then he hid money while asking for a payment plan.

A Florida CPA who knew exactly how IRS collection works did the one thing that turns a tax debt into a criminal case: after the IRS told him it intended to levy, he sold property, parked the proceeds in a bank account in someone else’s name — and left those funds off the table while he was negotiating a payment plan. The sentence: 18 months in prison, plus $2,343,615.01 in restitution.

The Justice Department announced that Ronald St. Clair, a Florida Certified Public Accountant, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for evading the payment of more than $2.2 million in income taxes. St. Clair pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

The debt came first

According to court documents and statements made in court, St. Clair accumulated tax debts for the years 2011 through 2017 and attempted to hide his assets from the IRS. A tax debt by itself is a collection problem — the kind taxpayers resolve every day through payment plans and other programs. What happened next is what made this a criminal case.

The move that changed everything

In 2020, the IRS notified St. Clair that it intended to levy his assets to collect the unpaid taxes. After that notice, St. Clair sold real property he owned and transferred the proceeds into a bank account in a third party’s name. He did not stop using the money — he directed it for his personal and business use. And while he was seeking a payment plan with the IRS, he intentionally failed to disclose those funds and assets.

Read that sequence again, because it is the whole case: levy notice, assets moved into someone else’s name, money still spent, and none of it disclosed while asking the IRS for a deal.

What came out at sentencing

At sentencing, the government presented evidence that the concealment ran for years. St. Clair hid money in bank accounts held in the names of others. He hid his interests in real estate by placing properties in the names of businesses not held in his name. He layered business entities to conceal his control of funds that he chose not to direct toward the taxes he owed.

The sentence

St. Clair pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. On top of the 18-month prison term, the court ordered him to pay $2,343,615.01 in restitution. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida announced the sentence.

Why this case matters if you owe the IRS

Two different taxpayers can owe the IRS the same amount of money and be in completely different kinds of trouble. The debt is civil. The hiding is the crime.

A payment plan — an installment agreement — is negotiated on the strength of a full financial picture: what you own, what you owe, what you earn. The IRS evaluates the financial disclosure it is given. Leaving an account or a property out of that picture does not protect it. In this case, the undisclosed funds were not a footnote to the negotiation — they were the conduct the guilty plea was built on.

And moving assets after a levy notice does not put them beyond reach. It creates a paper trail that points the other way: the transfer itself becomes the evidence.

The safe order if you owe back taxes

• LEGAL: You owe back taxes, you put everything on the table, and you negotiate a payment plan or another resolution on the real numbers.
• SKETCHY: You stall, let notices pile up, and treat your financial disclosure casually — leaving accounts or property off it and hoping nobody cross-checks. Sloppy and concealed look very similar from the IRS side of the desk.
• STOP: You move money or property into someone else’s name after the IRS says it intends to levy. That is the St. Clair fact pattern, and it ended with a guilty plea and a prison sentence.

Alex Volkov, CPA is a New York-licensed CPA with over two decades in accounting, focused on resolving IRS tax problems — back taxes, liens, levies, garnishments, payroll tax, and audits — for individuals and businesses nationwide.