January 31, 2017

An Atlanta, Georgia based tax return preparer was sentenced to 150 months in prison today for filing tax returns fraudulently claiming more than $20 million in refunds, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to documents filed with the court, Cheryl Singleton, 29, owned and operated Advanced Tax Services, a tax preparation business with multiple locations throughout the Atlanta area. Singleton hired and trained employees to prepare fraudulent tax returns and encouraged them to manipulate the numbers to maximize their clients’ refunds. From 2011 through 2016, Singleton and her employees included false dependents and fraudulent Schedule C businesses on their clients’ returns in order to inflate their refunds. Singleton and her employees also manipulated other individuals into providing their personal identification information by telling them they could qualify for an “Obama Stimulus” payment. and others used these individuals’ personal identification information to file fraudulent income tax returns in their names, without their knowledge or consent. DOJ

Tagged in: Tax Fraud,