06102019 - News Article - Assessor Jon Snyder gets probation after pleading to misdemeanor tax charge

Assessor Jon Snyder gets probation after pleading to misdemeanor tax charge
Chesterton Tribune
June 10, 2019
http://www.chestertontribune.com/PoliceFireEmergency/assessor_jon_snyder_gets_probati.htm

Porter County Assessor Jon Snyder has been sentenced to 12 months’ probation, after pleading guilty in federal court to a single misdemeanor count of failure to supply information to the Internal Revenue Service, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

Snyder was sentenced last week to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $25 assessment. His sentence included no fine and no restitution.

The misdemeanor charge was unrelated to Snyder’s government service as Porter County Assessor but instead concerned his activities as the owner of a private business, Shoreline Appraisals Inc. of Portage.

According to the indictment, Snyder was required to provide the IRS, by Feb. 28, 2014, an “Informational Return 1099 Form,” which documents all payments in excess of $600 for any services rendered by a non-employee in calendar year 2013.

That form is supposed to contain the name of the non-employee, his or her address, and the total dollar amount of payments made by the business to the non-employee.

In fact, the indictment stated, in 2013 Shore Appraisals paid more than $5,000 to a non-employee, identified only as “Person A,” but Snyder “willfully” failed to provide the IRS with the requisite Informational Return 1099 by Feb. 28, 2014.

As part of his plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office recommended a sentence “equal to the minimum of the applicable guideline range,” and stipulated that “for tax years 2008-13 no further criminal tax charges are warranted.”

In exchange--according to a sentencing memorandum filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on June 3--“Jon Snyder agreed to cooperate and testify” in the trial of his brother, former Portage Mayor Jim Snyder, who was convicted earlier this year on one count of bribery involving bids for city garbage trucks and one count of federal tax obstruction. Jim Snyder was acquitted on a second bribery count alleging a pay-for-tow scheme.

The sentencing memorandum cites Jon Snyder’s “cooperation including not only making recordings . . . relating to bribery allegations” but also his “testifying in the trial of James Snyder. In addition, Jon Snyder also provided helpful information in other criminal investigations.”