Owner charged with tax evasion

The owner of a Minneapolis business was charged with seven felony sales-tax violations, the Minnesota Department of Revenue announced last week. Rafael Eduardo Machado, of St. Michael, who operated JR Copier Specialists Inc., failed to file sales-tax returns for 2008 to 2010 or to pay all taxes owed, the state said. He also made retail sales after his tax permit was revoked in 2002. "We always file our taxes" and "we'd been paying sales tax," Machado told Whistleblower on Wednesday. He said he thought the revoked tax permit would be automatically reinstated when he reopened his business in 2008. Machado said the company now belongs to his wife and that the final $12,000 of his $31,473 tax debt will be paid this week. Each criminal charge carries a possible five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine, the state said.