Gardner business owner sentenced to prison for failing to pay taxes Publisher: U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Kansas Dateline: Kansas City, Kansas Date: 3 February 2025 Subjects: American Government , Crime Topics: Marvin Vail, Marvin's Tow Service

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas business owner was sentenced to 17 months in prison for failing to forward more than one million dollars in employment tax collections to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to court documents, Marvin Vail, 53, of Gardner pleaded guilty to one count of failure to account for and pay over employment taxes. 

As the owner and operator of Marvin's Tow Service, Inc. in Gardner, Kansas, Vail failed to pay employment taxes for at least 23 calendar quarters between 2012-2017. Employers are required to withhold Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes and income taxes from the wages paid to their employees then forward the withheld amounts to the IRS. IRS-Criminal Investigation agents interviewed the office administrator for Marvin's Tow Service and were told Vail wouldn’t allow the office administrator to pay the owed federal taxes.

 As part of his sentence, a federal judge ordered Vail to pay the IRS $1,512,283 in restitution. 

The IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask prosecuted the case.

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Updated February 3, 2025