St. James contractor evades taxes on illegal labor [View All]

Source: News Day

July 7, 2007

A subcontractor who provided carpenters to many large-scale home building projects on Long Island pleaded guilty Friday to failing to pay federal taxes on the wages of his workers, many of whom were illegal immigrants from Ecuador working off the books, according to officials.

The plea by Jay Kuhn, the head of Kuhn Brothers Construction of St. James, is just the start of a large-scale federal investigation into illegal practices in the construction industry on Long Island that cheat the government out of tax revenue, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Kuhn pleaded guilty to one count of evading payroll taxes on his workers' wages for the last quarter of 2005, as part of a plea bargain with the Internal Revenue Service in U.S. District Court in Central Islip. He faces between 21 months and 27 months in prison and must pay almost $400,000 in withholding taxes to the IRS as part of the plea.

Kuhn's company employs dozens of carpenters who specialize in framing - erecting the wooden structure of buildings. But his attorney said Kuhn was not solely to blame.


Read more: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcarp075284990jul07,0,548299.story?coll=ny-business-print

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BY ROBERT E. KESSLER.robert.kessler@newsday.com; Staff writers Carrie Mason-Draffen and Gary Dymski contributed to this story.