Two Waukesha dentists will serve jail time after pleading guilty to filing fraudulent income tax returns.Â
Michael Lafratta, 63, of East Troy, and James Murphy, 58, of Pewaukee, have each been sentenced to serve six months in jail and two years probation, Dane County Circuit Judge William Hanrahan ordered on Sept. 5.
According to the criminal complaint, Lafratta and Murphy under reported income from their business, Your Family Dentist Partnership, 411 North Grand Ave., which they operated until 2012. A witness said Murphy admitted to him that he and Lafratta had cheated on their taxes in the business partnership, the complaint said.
A Wisconsin Department of Revenue investigation determined that  their accountant had been preparing their partnership returns from Lafratta’s handwritten documents for years.
The DOR investigation revealed that Lafratta and Murphy had underreported their partnership income by $227,656 in 2009; $247,428 in 2010; and $219,663 in 2011. In total, Lafratta evaded $31,390 in state income taxes and Murphy evaded $22,288, the complaint said.
