Local restaurant owner pleads guilty to federal tax charges
The owner didn't pay approximately $383,000 to the IRS over a five-year span, authorities said.
The owner of King’s Roast Beef in Salem pleaded guilty to charges related to a failure to pay about $383,000 in taxes, at federal court in Boston on Monday. John Kalantzis, 52, of Lynn, pleaded guilty to “two counts of aiding and assisting in filing a false tax return,” according to a press release from the U.S Attorney’s Office. Kalantzis’s sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 2 of this year by U.S. District Court Judge William Young.From tax years 2011 through 2015, Kalantzis reduced the federal income taxes owed by King’s Roast Beef by underreporting both the restaurant’s gross receipts and expenses, according to the release. Kalantzis accomplished the scheme by diverting a portion of the “restaurant’s cash receipts to himself, paying for some of the restaurant supplies with cash, and paying a portion of his employee’s wages in cash,” authorities said. He did not report this activity to his tax preparer. Throughout this period, approximately $855,000 went unreported to the IRS by Kalantzis, according to the release. As a result, he avoided having to pay the $383,000 in corporate and personal taxes. Kalantzis could not be reached for comment.
