Charles “Chuck” Scheid of Cherokee County, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, entered a guilty plea to Income Tax Evasion in Fulton County Superior Court this morning. The felony charge was due to Scheid's failure to file an income tax return for calendar year 2003, when Scheid owned more than $4,000.00 in taxes, interest and penalties.

Scheid was sentenced under Georgia's First Offender Act to a term of three years on probation, a $500 fine, and $928.80 in restitution. The amount of restitution was reduced from the $4,249 originally owed to the Department of Revenue because Revenue had previously seized a federal tax refund owed to Scheid and applied it to the amount owed. As part of his plea, a misdemeanor charge of Failure to File an Income Tax Return was dismissed. A special condition of his probation is that all tax returns due within his probation term must be timely filed.

Assistant Attorney General Greg Lohmeier prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, and the investigation was led by Carter Leverette, an agent with the Georgia Department of Revenue.