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Clarion farmers sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion
Two brother farmers from Iowa will spend time in prison for tax evasion.
Sixty-one-year-old Scott Stecher, and 58-year-old Doug Stecher or Clarion were each sentenced to one month in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion in December.
The brothers admitted that they diverted income from their farming operations to hide it from the IRS and evade paying income taxes from 2011 through 2013.
The information shows Doug Stecher hid $719,000 of income and paid $240,000 dollars less in income tax. Scott Stecher hid $448,000 of income and paid $183,785 dollars less in income tax as a result.
Two brothers who ran a farming operation together while also farming their own land were sentenced today to federal prison for evading taxes.
Scott Stecher and Doug Stecher, from Clarion, Iowa, received the prison terms after each pled guilty to tax evasion on December 9, 2020.
At the guilty pleas, each brother admitted that each took steps to hide income from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to evade paying income taxes. Information from their plea agreements and from their sentencing hearings showed that, for tax years 2011 through 2013, each brother diverted income from their farming operations into bank accounts that their accountant did not know about. The accountant then prepared tax returns for each brother, which they then signed knowing that the tax returns were false because the returns did not report each brother s full income. During those three tax years, Doug Stecher hid $718,995 of income from the IRS and paid $240,053 less in income tax than he should have paid. S