LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kevin Hall, a co-owner of HRS Autocare in Jessamine County, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge alleging he withheld payroll taxes from employees for years but didn’t turn the money over to the IRS, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Lexington. The filing says Hall admitted the scheme ran from 2017 through the third quarter of 2024 and left the government short by $835,251.17.
Hall will plead to one count of willfully failing to collect or pay over taxes, a felony that carries up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release. He also agreed to pay full restitution and acknowledged the IRS can immediately assess the debt and pursue civil fraud penalties on top of the criminal judgment, the document states.
Prosecutors wrote that Hall co-owned and operated HRS Autocare — which at times did business as HRS of Nicholasville LLC and HRS of Wilmore LLC — and made the company’s financial decisions. As the person responsible for payroll, he knew HRS had to withhold federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from workers’ paychecks and to remit both those withholdings and the employer’s matching share to the IRS, according to the filing.
Instead, the agreement says, Hall caused HRS to withhold the taxes but “failed to account for and pay over” the money nearly every quarter for seven years. One example cited by prosecutors: for the quarter ending June 2019, HRS withheld payroll taxes but failed to send in $11,500.29 in employee and employer amounts.
Under the deal, Hall agrees that restitution totals $835,251.17, payable to the IRS, and that he remains liable for any civil assessments and fraud penalties arising from the same conduct. He must also make full financial disclosures to the U.S. Attorney’s Office within 30 days of his plea and notify prosecutors before moving or disposing of property worth more than $1,000 before sentencing, the filing says.
Both sides recommend advisory sentencing guidelines based on a tax loss exceeding $550,000, which places the base level at 20, with potential reductions for acceptance of responsibility and if Hall meets “zero-point” offender criteria. The recommendation does not bind the judge. The government also says it will support keeping Hall on his current release conditions if he remains compliant.
The case matters because payroll taxes fund Social Security and Medicare; when employers withhold from workers but don’t pay the IRS, employees’ wages are shorted and the public programs take a hit. In court papers, Hall admitted understanding those obligations and “willfully” failing to meet them.
A sentencing date has been set for February 2026. The case is docketed as 5:25-cr-00129-KKC in the Eastern District of Kentucky.