Pickens woman charged with tax evasion

A 34-year old woman in Pickens was placed under arrest today by agents with the state Department of Revenue.  The DOR announced that Haley Hyman Southerland is accused of failing to file South Carolina individual income tax returns for 2017-2019.  In the arrest warrants, she’s accused of failing to report $691,674 in wages from an Anderson company over three years and allegedly used a fraudulent W-4 with the company to falsely claim she was exempt from state taxes.  The allegation is that she evaded a total of $40,473 in state income tax and is charged with three counts of tax evasion.  Potentially, Southerland faces five years in prison or a fine of $10 thousand on each count or both.  Pending a bond hearing, she was being held in the Anderson County jail.