After getting caught with over $200,000 owed to the state and government, a Minnesota business owner is choosing a non-traditional defense — yes, he stole, but he feels really bad about it.

Stephen Edward Matters, owner and operator of My Maid and other residential cleaning businesses in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, was nabbed when his company’s books weren’t as spotless as its services. Among the 22 felony tax charges Matters faces, two stand out:

1. Not remitting sales tax in excess of $150,000 to the state, and
2. Pocketing $55,300 in Social Security taxes from employees’ paychecks instead of handing the money over to IRS.

My Maid had sales of at least $2,413,906 between 1998 and 2005, yet Matters never handed a dime to the state. One key factor raised a red flag: the Minnesota Department of Revenue had revoked Matter’s sales tax permit in 2000, yet he continued to perform business without it.

Of course, his business wasn’t the only thing profiting. Those Social Security taxes he’d held onto? Matters used them for personal expenses. Rather than worry about hiding that extra income on his tax return, he simply decided not to file personal income tax for 10 years.

After grilling him over his financial “decisions,” state and federal prosecutors reported Matters “often could not sleep because he was worried about the fact that he had not paid or filed taxes.”

Apparently, he couldn’t pull himself away from his guilt long enough to take a nap on the giant pile of money he’d been stealing from his employees and the state.

We’ll see if a judge feels his pain — each of his 22 felonies is punishable by a $10,000 fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

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Tags: Felony, fines, Remitted taxes, Social Security