Tax Lawyer's Blog

The St. Petersburg Times reports that,

The late Ralph . . . died owing almost $300 million in corporate and income taxes and penalties, the IRS said in a complaint filed Thursday.

The IRS also alleges that while his concrete firms were paying no income taxes, they distributed huge sums to shareholders “and/or their controlled companies.”

The concrete businesses transferred more than $61 million to Hughes, who was their director and majority shareholder, according to the suit.

According to the Tampa Tribune, Hughes’ family denies that its patriarch did anything wrong:

Court documents indicate a portion of the tax claim relates to Ralph Hughes’ personal income, but Shea Hughes said he thinks it all relates to his father’s business dealings.

“I believe it all is rooted from the corporate side and some audits going on with Cast-Crete (one of Hughes’ companies) and the IRS,” he said. “My dad paid every dime that he owed personally and always would and always has.”

Both the Times and the Tribune make a point of noting that Mr. Hughes was a Republican who had dedicated much of his life to opposing wasteful government spending.

Here’s the Tribune again:

Hughes . . .  helped shape the course of county politics by picking candidates he liked and backing them with advice and money. He aggressively supported county commissioners Jim Norman and Ken Hagan, as well as former commissioners Brian Blair and Ronda Storms.

Critics accused him of essentially buying a majority of the commission.

Hughes believed the county wasn’t fiscally conservative enough, so much so that he underwrote a $150,000 study into the county’s spending.

After his death in June 2008 at the age of 77, the Hillsborough County Commission had planned to name it’s Moral Courage Award after him, but last month after the IRS suit was revealed Hughes family asked that the commission to remove his name from the award.

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