A taxpayer who owned and operated various mobile clinics was found to be the responsible person for collected but unpaid California sales and use taxes. The taxpayer, who was an engineer, claimed that he had no background in accounting and shouldn’t have been expected to know that he had to actually pay over the tax charged to and paid by his customers. At his appeal, the taxpayer tried to throw his bookkeeper under the bus, accusing her of embezzling the funds and changing the books to reflect nontaxable sales, but he produced no evidence of the embezzlement and she had started working for him after the years at issue. (Appeal of Mello, 2020-OTA-070)
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