MANCHESTER, NH — Former city Alderman Thomas Katsiantonis of Manchester, pled guilty in Hillsborough Superior Court-Northern District on Friday to two counts of theft, four counts of tax evasion, one count of falsifying physical evidence and one count of unsworn falsification.
The State requested a sentence that would have amounted to a minimum of 8 years in the New Hampshire State Prison, with additional suspended sentences. The Court sentenced Katsiantonis to 1½ to 3 years in State Prison with additional suspended sentences. Restitution will be determined at a later hearing. Additionally, Katsiantonis is prohibited from ownership or a managerial role in a business that accepts Meals & Rooms tax payments from customers.
The charges to which Katsiantonis pled guilty all stemmed from his ownership of two Manchester restaurants: Grand Slam Pizza II and Tommy K’s Restaurant and Bar. Katsiantonis was licensed to operate both of these establishments with the DRA. As a licensee, he was required to collect Meals and Rooms (“M&R”) tax payments from restaurant patrons and to pay them to the State. The M&R tax is calculated as a percentage of taxable sales. It is paid by the patron to the operator, and belongs to the State from the moment of collection. The operator must collect the M&R tax from patrons and regularly remit all M&R taxes collected to the State through DRA. M&R tax funds flow to the towns, cities, and unincorporated places, and into the State’s General Fund and Education Trust Fund.
During its investigation, the State discovered that for more than five years (June 2011–January 2017) Katsiantonis purposely underreported the taxable sales from both of his restaurants, which allowed him to keep for himself over $441,000 in M&R tax payments that had been collected from patrons and should have been remitted to DRA. In addition, this underreporting of taxable sales by Katsiantonis gave rise to the tax evasion charges. Specifically, over the tax years of 2007, 2012, 2013, and 2014, Grand Slam Pizza II evaded more than $154,000 in Business Profits Tax, because, by underreporting taxable sales, Katsiantonis also underreported his restaurants’ taxable business profits.
The successful resolution of this case was the result of the collaborative efforts of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the DRA, with assistance from both the Manchester Police Department and Special Agents from the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
The DRA and the Attorney General’s Office continue to investigate revenue suppression related to the State’s tax programs. In addition to general underreporting, revenue suppression also includes using software or other technology to alter, conceal, or delete sales transactions, or to otherwise modify point of sale (POS) systems.
If you have information related to revenue suppression or tax fraud, please visit the Department of Revenue Administration’s website at or send an e-mail to TaxFraudHotline@dra.nh.gov, or call the Tax Fraud Hotline at 603-230-5030.
