A Brentwood business owner pleaded guilty to a federal tax charge after failing to pay nearly $2 million in employment taxes over nine years.

Thomas William Jones, 59, entered his guilty plea Sept. 1 to one count of failing to collect and pay taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to Fox 17, citing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. He faces up to five years in prison. A judge will determine his sentence at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 15, 2027.

Jones owned and operated Alternative Solutions Consulting Corp., a software consulting company based in Franklin, prosecutors said. He controlled the company's bank account and paid employees from it.

An IRS investigation found that Jones failed to file required forms reporting employees' wages and did not make required tax payments to the IRS from 2014 through 2023. The total amount of taxes he failed to collect and pay was no more than $1,975,964.24, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Employment taxes are funds that employers withhold from paychecks, including federal income tax and employees' shares of Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employers also pay a matching share.

Part of a national enforcement surge

Jones' case was included in the Justice Department's first-ever National Tax Enforcement Surge, a coordinated push announced Oct. 14 by the department's National Fraud Enforcement Division and IRS Criminal Investigation. The surge targeted 76 defendants across the country whose alleged and proven crimes involved more than $490 million in estimated losses to the federal government.

The Middle District of Tennessee was among 35 U.S. Attorney's offices that participated in the effort, which ran from early September through mid-October.

"We are looking for people who lied on purpose to take money that they knew did not belong to them," Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division said at an Oct. 14 press conference, as reported by CPA Practice Advisor.

Jarod Koopman, chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, said at the same press conference that the cases involved hundreds of millions in identified tax losses, adding that when taxpayers evade their obligations, "the burden … is shifted to law-abiding Americans."

No statement from Jones or a defense attorney appeared in public records as of publication. Residents who suspect tax fraud can report it to the IRS at 1-800-829-0433.