A Ponte Vedra Beach business executive who put $2 million in the bank for taxes has pleaded guilty to holding onto employment taxes that were owed to the federal government.
Daniel Tharp’s conviction for willfully failing to pay taxes that his Hangar X Holdings LLC owed could legally lead to a prison sentence as long as five years, but prosecutors agreed to recommend lenience when U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger sentences him.
Tharp had already paid the Internal Revenue Service the roughly $1.2 million he owed as restitution before his plea agreement was handed over Wednesday to U.S. Magistrate Monte C. Richardson.
Tharp’s plea only admitted not sending employment taxes for one three-month quarter of 2019, when the company had at least 14 employees and should have submitted $187,525. But the agreement spells out that the company didn’t send either money or required quarterly reports for about five years.
Different case: $10M+ in earnings, $0 to IRS; Jacksonville-area businessman charged with tax evasion
Employment taxes include withheld income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes and unemployment taxes.
Tharp founded Avianis Systems LLC, an aviation technology company that became Hangar X, and moved it from Texas to Florida in late 2019. Avianis remains a recognized name in its industry because another company, Wheels Up, bought part of the firm before the name change and subsequently licensed part of its technology to another firm, Portside.
Tharp, who became chief platform officer for Wheels Up through 2022, bought a St. Johns County house in 2020.
Tharp’s plea agreement doesn’t address why Hangar X drew government attention. But it says that between 2015 and the end of 2019, the company had employees scattered around the country and withheld employment taxes as the law requires, but didn’t forward the money to the IRS.
Tharp created a bank account in 2019 labeled as a federal payroll escrow and put $2 million there, but “did not remit any of the $1,217,858.81 that were due,” the agreement said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Guilty plea: Ponte Vedra executive ‘did not remit any’ of $1.2M employment taxes due IRS
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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