A San Antonio woman who ran a tax preparation business has been convicted of filing false tax returns.
A federal jury found Natasha Sheree Banks Brown, 45, guilty on 11 counts of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false tax return, Justin Simmons, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said Friday.
In December 2020, authorities began looking into some of the tax returns Brown had prepared at her business, Tasha’s Total Tax Service.
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Investigators discovered that Brown filed individual tax returns on behalf of her clients and that they included false and fraudulent deductions and credits that significantly increased their tax refunds, according to federal officials. Brown didn’t quote her clients a price for her work, but told them that she would take the fee out of the returns, Simmons said.
As part of the scheme, investigators said, Brown used tax preparation software that allowed her to have the refunds deposited into a bank account she controlled.
“Everyone rightly wants to get the best deal on their tax preparation and the largest refund possible, but some things are just too good to be true,” Simmons said. “This defendant abused the trust of her clients to make more than a million dollars for herself and cost the government several times that amount. This tax season, and every tax season, taxpayers should make sure to properly vet their tax preparers and keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior both to protect themselves and the country as a whole from these types of fraudsters.”
U.S. District Judge David Ezra presided over the trial and is scheduled to sentence Brown on July 13.
This article originally published at Jury convicts San Antonio tax preparer of filing false returns.