Tax-Evading Couple Get Probation

A Palos Verdes Estates couple who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax evasion charges will serve three years of probation and were ordered to pay more than $60,000 in fines, fees and back taxes.

In ordering the payment Wednesday, Torrance Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills suspended jail sentences for Dr. Max R. Moses, 50, an orthopedic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Harbor City, and his wife, Marlene E. Moses, 39, a Rolling Hills Estates real estate agent.

The couple admitted that they failed to file state tax returns for 1985, 1986 and 1987. The couple then filed a fraudulent 1985 return in October, 1989, and a fraudulent return for 1986 in January, 1990, Deputy Dist. Atty. James Pregerson said.

During those three years, Franchise Tax Board spokesman Jim Reber said, they earned more than $500,000.

Reber said the case surfaced as part of a pilot program to track down information on self-employed professionals, such as doctors and attorneys, who are not subject to income tax withholding from their paychecks.

“I think the bottom line is when you have anybody in the position of stature they are, you can’t turn your head when they fail to file returns,” Reber said. “The victims, of course, are you and I, the honest taxpayers of California.”