Woman gets 46 days in jail for tax evasion

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 09:48 a.m. HST, Nov 05, 2009

A woman who failed to report her income and evaded tax payments in 2004 and 2005 has been sentenced to 46 days in jail and five years probation, according to the state Department of Taxation.

Josephine Q. Lopez was ordered on Oct. 19 by Circuit Court Judge Virginia Crandall to repay $56,201 in unpaid taxes at the rate of $60 a month.

Lopez, who was extradited to Honolulu from the mainland, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to evade taxes, and two counts of willfully failing to file her individual income tax returns for 2004 and 2005.

Lopez received taxable income of $298,844 in 2004 and $467,245 in 2005 but paid no taxes, Tax Department officials said yesterday.

Tax evasion is a felony punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and five years in jail. Failing to file a return is a misdemeanor subject to up to a $25,000 fine and a year in jail.