If preparing (fraudulent) tax returns is wrong, then I don’t want to be right! A Texas tax pro was banned in 2011 from conducting a tax preparation business after she admitted to preparing or assisting to prepare approximately 200 false tax returns. The tax credits she tried to obtain in that case were described in a filing as “so exaggerated that no reasonable person could conclude they were anything but deliberately fabricated.” But she was back at it again, and since 2016, she had been preparing income tax returns for clients despite the prohibition. She prepared numerous false returns which claimed various false items on her clients’ behalf: false wages, salaries, tips, and tax credits such as the Earned Income Credit, Child Tax Credit, and American Opportunity Tax Credit. She has been sentenced to 15 months in prison. (www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/tax-preparer-sent-prison-tax-fraud-again)
CPAs, get four hours of fraud CPE with our 2021 Fundamentals of Fraud Prevention & Detection On-Demand Webinar. Click here for more information.