Tennessee business owner pleads guilty to tax perjury, DOJ says

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — A business owner in Decherd, Tennessee pleaded guilty to tax perjury at a district court in Chattanooga recently.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 66-year-old Ross A. Rinkes pleaded guilty to making and subscribing a false U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040.

The DOJ says that Rinkes’ actions caused the U.S. to lose more than $670,000 in taxes.

He gave the guilty plea on October 11, 2023.

Chattanooga courthouse / Courtesy of Eastern District of Tennessee

On March 7, 2024, Judge Charles Atchley, Jr. will sentence Rinkes.

The DOJ said Rinkes may face up to three years in federal prison and a fine of up to $100,000. He will likely also have supervised release for up to one year, according to the DOJ.

Rinkes already paid more than $1.4 million in restitution to the IRS, the DOJ said. They say this includes “unpaid taxes plus penalties and interest required by law.”

Rinkes owns a farm called Rinkes Angus Ranch near Decherd. The DOJ said he purchased and resold chicken litter to be used as a fertilizer. He also sold crops to grain aggregators.

For five years, authorities said Rinkes gave false information to his tax return preparer. This caused him to underreport his income for those years. Those years were 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The DOJ explained how this happened:

“On his tax return for 2017, Rinkes willfully and falsely underreported his income by at least $523,796, which resulted in him underreporting his income tax due for that year by at least $181,659. His false individual income tax returns for 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 resulted in a total tax loss of $679,515 to the United States.”