Salem restaurant owner sentenced on federal tax charges

A Lynn man is headed to prison after he didn’t report or pay taxes on $1.5 million in income from his Salem restaurant.John Kalantzis, 52, who owns King’s Roast Beef Inc., was sentenced in U.S. District Court to a year and a day behind bars and a year of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, federal authorities said Monday.Kalantzis has already paid $383,238 in restitution to the IRS. In July, he pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in a false tax return.From 2011 to 2015, he reported the restaurant’s gross receipts and expenses as lower than what they were, which also brought down the amount the business owed in taxes.“Kalantzis did so by diverting some of the restaurant’s cash receipts to himself, paying for some of the restaurant supplies with cash, and paying a portion of his employees’ wages in cash,” according to officials. “Kalantzis then failed to report this conduct to his tax preparer.”Within that time frame, authorities calculated that about $855,000 went unreported, resulting in Kalantzis avoiding paying $383,000 in taxes.During each of the tax years from 2011 to 2015, officials said there was about $300,000 in cash receipts and $120,000 in expenses not reported.