ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Department of Justice has announced that a federal grand jury has indicted a Southern Utah business owner for allegedly evading paying almost $2 million in taxes.
According to court documents, Phyllip Hallman Heaton, a 42-year-old from Washington City is the owner of Zion Outfitter. That store is an outdoor retail and rental shop near the entrance of Zion National Park.
Documents allege that between 2018 and 2022, Heaton underreported over $5.4 million dollars in sales from the store. Heaton would allegedly provide his tax-return preparers with profit and loss statements that underreported Zion Outfitter's gross receipts, falsely representing to his tax preparers that the profit and loss statements were accurate, and would sign and authorize the filing of tax returns with the IRS that he knew were false.
According to investigators, the false filings resulted in Heaton evading over $1.8 million in taxes for those years. Due to the nature of the crime, he is now charged with five counts of evasion of assessment of income tax and five counts of fraud and false statements.
The case is also being investigated now by the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigation department.
Phyllip Heaton is scheduled for an initial appearance on the charges on October 28 at the ST. George Courthouse.
