Part-Time Bookkeeper is Responsible for Employer’s Delinquent Payroll Taxes

A part-time bookkeeper is liable for his employer’s unpaid payroll taxes.  He owes the 100% trust fund penalty for willful failure to deposit.  He was an hourly employee of a doctor’s office and took care of the business’s payroll.  Although he knew that taxes withheld from workers’ paychecks weren’t being remitted to the IRS, he claims he isn’t a responsible person who willfully failed to pay over the taxes.  He wasn’t an officer or director, he had no ownership stake in the business, and he had no check-signing authority.  He did transmit payroll tax returns to the IRS and he had access to the employer’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) account.  Despite his lack of check signing authority, the Tax Court sided with the IRS making the bookkeeper liable for the unpaid payroll taxes.