A former Tennessee business owner pleaded guilty to willfully failing to pay over employment taxes to the IRS on behalf of the company she owned and operated. According to court documents and statements made in court, Mari Alexander, 52, was the sole owner and president of a mental-health counseling center with multiple locations throughout Tennessee. Alexander controlled the counseling center’s financial affairs and was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from the wages of employees and paying those funds over to the IRS each quarter, as well as filing quarterly employment tax returns with the IRS. From 2015 through 2020, however, Alexander willfully failed to pay over to the IRS the payroll taxes she collected from the counseling center’s employees, and willfully failed to file more than 20 quarterly employment tax returns with the IRS. In total, Alexander caused a tax loss to the United States of more than $1 million.