Feds:EastLyme dentist avoided paying $244,000 in taxes

Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·2 min read

Jul. 18—The U.S. attorney's office said Hanna is the sole owner of Paul Hanna DMD PC, a dental practice in New London. It said Hanna takes fees from dental patients in the form personal checks, cash and credit card payments.

"Hanna owns the building where his dental practice is located and the practice pays rent to Hanna individually," it said.

For each of the 2000 through 2009 tax years, the U.S. attorney's office said, Hanna filed a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for himself and his wife, and paid the tax due and owing for those years, typically by having withholdings during the year sufficient to cover his tax liability.

Then, the U.S. attorney's office said, for the 2010 through 2012 tax years, Hanna filed a Form 1040 for himself and his wife, but did not pay the tax due.

"As a result, from approximately April 2012 through 2017, Hanna was subject to IRS collections enforcement for the 2010 through 2012 tax years, including forced collection activity, such as liens placed on property and seized payments taken by way of levy," it said.

The U.S. attorney's office said Hanna earned approximately $1.6 million in taxable income from his work as a dentist and from rental income from 2013 through 2020. However, it said, he failed to file tax returns for any of those years, resulting in a loss to the IRS of $244,541.

In addition to failing to file personal federal income tax returns, the U.S. attorney's office said, Hanna attempted to evade the assessment of tax by paying himself management fees instead of a reasonable wage. It said he operated in cash by self-endorsing business checks to himself and cashing those checks to keep money out of his personal bank accounts, adding he paid personal expenses directly from his business accounts without reflecting those payments as income.

The U.S. attorney's office said Hanna's sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 18, at which time Hanna faces a maximum term of five years in prison. Hanna is released pending sentencing, it said.

—

Former CT Sen. Joe Lieberman pledges not to back spoiler in '24

—

WCBS meteorologist Elise Finch, who aired in CT, dead at 51