Colorado bridal shop owner ordered to prison for non-payment of $1.3 million in taxes
The 67-year-old owner of a Cherry Creek bridal shop was ordered last week to spend a year in federal prison for neglecting to pay employment taxes for 10 years.
Donna M. Savoy was also ordered to repay the more than $1.3 million owed to the Internal Revenue Service.
Savoy, the owner of Donna Beth Creations, properly withheld employment taxes on behalf of her employees from first quarter 2014 through the fourth quarter of 2024, but then kept the money, according to her federal indictment.
Per federal law, business owners are responsible for paying employment taxes - also known as payroll taxes or trust fund taxes - that contribute on the employees' behalf to federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment support. These taxes are collected separately from employees' wages, and are paid by employers directly to the IRS.
Savoy, according to the federal indictment, withheld those employment taxes from employees at Donna Beth Creations, as required. But, rather than pay those amounts to the federal government, spent them personally and on the business's expenses.
Savoy collected more than $63,000 in 2014, the first year she failed to pay the taxes, according to the indictment. Those collections increased the last two years in question, 2023 and 2024, to over $200,000 each year.
An IRS investigation also claimed Savoy willfully failed to file individual tax returns from 2014 through 2023, according to a press release from the Denver Field Office of the IRS.
Savoy, a Parker resident, pleaded guilty in February to a single count of failing to pay employment taxes. On June 17, she was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, in addition to the $1,354,018 total of unpaid taxes. Payments were to begin immediately, although any interest was suspended.
Savoy faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to the Denver IRS office.
The judge also ordered Savoy to submit to three years of supervised probation once she is released from prison.
Savoy was given until noon on Sept. 18 to begin serving her prison term.
