In this federal tax case, Joseph Keller appeals from the district court’s 1 grant of summary judgment in favor of the United States with respect to his liability under 26 U.S.C. § 6672. We affirm.
I.
Joseph Keller served as the personal representative of the estate of his brother, Wilhelm Keller (Wilhelm). At the time of his death in 1982, Wilhelm was the owner of the Sleepy Hollow Inn (Inn) in Beulah, North Dakota. Wilhelm’s will directed the estate’s personal representative to operate the Inn until it could be sold. In 1982, Keller sold the Inn under a contract for deed. After the buyers experienced financial difficulties in 1984, Keller renegotiated terms of the contract. The buyers, however, eventually defaulted on the contract in 1985, and the Inn was returned to Wilhelm’s estate. Keller *853 then participated in a meeting with the estate’s heirs and the estate’s attorney. At that meeting, Keller expressed his desire to turn the Inn over to the bank holding the mortgage. After the heirs objected, Keller ultimately agreed to let the heirs operate the Inn.
Keller hired Lillian Halstead as the manager of the Inn. Halstead was employed in that position from January 1986 until the Inn was closed in June 1988. Her duties included maintaining the Inn’s checking account, keeping the books, and setting the salaries for employees. She also prepared the Inn’s tax returns and paid amounts due for worker’s compensation insurance and state withholding taxes. As manager, Halstead was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Inn.
Keller also authorized the employment of a secretarial service, which was initially retained to manage the Inn’s bookkeeping, payroll, and state and federal tax reporting requirements. The service filed the reports and paid the withholding taxes for the first two quarters of 1986. The Inn subsequently defaulted on its payments to the secretarial service, and Keller had to negotiate a settlement for its fees. Thereafter, Halstead and one of the heirs employed at the Inn took over the payroll, and Keller instructed that they consult with the estate’s attorney to learn how to comply with payroll tax reporting and payment requirements.
Sometime around October 1987, Keller discovered that the Inn’s federal withholding taxes had not been remitted for the third and fourth quarters of 1986. He then filed the quarterly reports for those quarters and made payments toward the amounts due. Again, Keller expressed his desire to shut down the Inn. After attending a meeting to discuss the situation with Halstead, the bank, the estate’s attorney, and a Small Business Administration counselor, Keller once again agreed to allow the Inn to continue operating. Keller thereafter instructed Halstead to comply with the reporting requirements and to pay the withholding taxes in the future. Other than periodically inquiring of Halstead whether she was following his instructions, Keller did nothing to ensure that taxes were actually being remitted. In June 1988, Keller finally closed the Inn after discovering that Halstead had continued to fail to pay federal withholding taxes.
In March 1990, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 6672, assessed a penalty against Keller in the amount of $18,485.57 for the third and fourth quarters of 1986, all of 1987, and the first and second quarters of 1988. The IRS charged that Keller was a responsible person who had willfully failed to pay over federal employment taxes withheld from the wages of the Inn’s employees. Keller paid a nominal amount and filed a claim for a refund and an abatement. After the IRS denied the claim, Keller filed suit in federal court. The government filed a counterclaim against Keller and Halstead, seeking payment of the remainder of the assessment. The district court granted the government’s motion for summary judgment on its counterclaim against both Keller and Halstead and dismissed Keller’s complaint. This appeal followed. 2
II.
We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment
de novo. Willman v. Heartland Hospital East,
Section 6672 provides in pertinent part:
Any person required to collect, truthfully account for, and pay over any tax imposed by this title who willfully fails to collect such tax, or truthfully account for and pay over such tax, or willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any such tax or the payment thereof, shall ... be liable to a penalty equal to the total amount of the tax evaded, or not collected, or not accounted for and paid over.
*854
To incur liability under section 6672 for unpaid employment taxes, an individual must 1) be a responsible person who 2) willfully fails to pay over withholding taxes to the United States.
E.g. Jenson v. United States,
A.
Keller first contends that he is not a responsible person. He argues that Hal-stead and the heirs of the estate had day-today control over operation of the Inn and that he did not direct or control its disbursements. Keller, however, fails to recognize that more than one person may be considered responsible under section 6672. It is not necessary that a responsible person be an actual disbursing officer.
Jenson,
There is no dispute that Keller was at all times the personal representative of Wilhelm’s estate, owner of the Inn. As such, Keller was personally vested under state law with the ultimate responsibility for the estate. See N.D. CentCode §§ 30.1-18-01— 30.1-18-21 (1976 & Supp.1993). His authority over the Inn was equivalent to that of an absolute owner, holding it in trust for the benefit of creditors and other interested parties. Id. § 30.1-18-11. He controlled the estate’s bank accounts, and he was authorized to engage in various transactions on behalf of the estate. See id. § 30.1-18-15. Indeed, Keller in fact exercised that authority by, among other things, employing persons to assist in administering the estate and borrowing money for and making improvements to the Inn. Finally, Keller does not dispute that, upon learning that withholding taxes had not been paid, he filed the Inn’s quarterly tax returns and made payment toward the amount of taxes due. Thus, Keller’s own actions reflect that he considered himself to have certain authority and responsibility in matters relating to payment of employment taxes. Although he may have delegated to Halstead certain responsibilities relating to operation of the Inn, that delegation did not divest Keller of the ultimate authority to prevent the Inn’s default in payment of the taxes. The fact that Keller chose not to fully exercise that authority is not determinative. Accordingly, we hold that Keller was a responsible person within the meaning of section 6672.
B.
Keller next claims that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether he willfully failed to pay withholding taxes. He argues that he had no actual knowledge that taxes were not being remitted. Even assuming Keller lacked actual knowledge, his actions or inaction, as the district court held, could still constitute willful conduct if he recklessly disregarded a known or obvious risk.
Honey,
Here, Keller was a responsible person under section 6672 during all of the quarters that the Inn failed to pay withholding taxes. As such, once he learned of the Inn’s default in making payment, he was obligated to apply unencumbered funds of the Inn to pay the taxes due for the last two quarters of 1986 and any future quarters.
See Honey,
Keller also argues that his conduct was not willful because he relied on statements by the estate’s attorney and that he was fearful of lawsuits by the estate’s heirs. Such attempts at establishing reasonable cause to excuse the failure to pay over withholding taxes do not negate a finding of willfulness.
Olsen,
The judgment is affirmed.