RANDOLPH COUNTY, N.C. — The former office manager of a pediatric clinic in Randolph County has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for federal employment tax fraud after being convicted of embezzling withheld payroll taxes.
From March 2011 through September 2016, Terra Ferguson of New London withheld approximately $78,937 in payroll taxes from employee paychecks and willfully failed to pay that money to the Internal Revenue Service, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department didn't name the clinic where Ferguson worked.
Ferguson also failed to pay $35,472 in employment taxes, the Justice Department says. Instead, she paid personal credit card bills, funded personal business ventures involving a mountain cabin rental and a bar, paid for personal vacations and issued checks to herself totaling $1.4 million, all from the business’ bank account, according to the Justice Department.
Additionally, Ferguson prepared individual income tax returns for her employer that falsely under reported gross receipts and inflated mortgage interest deductions, causing an additional tax loss of more than $250,000. The tax loss resulting from Ferguson’s conduct is $374,101.
On May 17, she pleaded guilty to one count of failing to collect, account for or pay over payroll taxes for the employment tax quarter ending Dec. 31, 2015.
In addition to 14 months in prison, Ferguson must serve three years of supervised release and to pay $374,101 in restitution to the IRS.
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