HARRISBURG — Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced the filing of criminal charges against a York County pizza shop owner for failing to pay more than $68,000 in state taxes.
The charges against Anthony Sottasante, 47, are the result of an investigation by the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations. The investigation began with a referral to OAG from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
Sottasante is the owner and operator of Parma Pizza on Grantley Road in Spring Garden Township. Although Sottasante was the person responsible for filing and paying sales and employer withholding taxes for his business, he instead used some of those funds to cover the costs of operating his business, investigators charged.
“When business owners collect taxes and don’t turn them over to the Commonwealth, those are funds that cannot be used to provide essential services to our citizens,” Attorney General Shapiro said. “We’ll work every day to ensure those who use tax funds in this way are held responsible.”
Sottasante is charged with failing to pay a total of $68,961.07 in sales, employer withholding and personal income taxes between 2013 and 2016. That total includes $58,181.68 in state sales tax, $2,108.39 in employer withholding tax and $8,671 in personal income tax.
Sottasante, of the 600 block of Country Club Road, Spring Garden Township, is charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts of failure to make required disposition of funds received, and misdemeanor counts of willful failure to timely pay Pennsylvania personal income tax.
The preliminary arraignment was held today, and the defendant was released on his own recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 20.
Attorney General Shapiro thanked the Department of Revenue and the investigators in the department’s Bureau of Criminal Tax Investigations for their work on this case.
“Our agents work closely with investigators from the Revenue Department on tax cases like this one and others as well, ” Attorney General Shapiro said.”That cooperation is important and ongoing.”
This case will be prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Rebecca Franz of the Attorney General’s Criminal Prosecutions Section.
