A Clayton County tax preparer pleaded guilty Tuesday to creating phantom businesses on clients’ returns to help them offset their tax liability and obtain thousands of dollars in refunds they didn’t deserve, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Anita R. Ford of Jonesboro, who owned and operated Georgia Peach Financial & Fast Tax Service from 2004 to 2012, cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of as much as $7 million the government would have received if the returns had been filled out properly.
Ford, 49, was caught in March 2011 after she prepared a false return for an IRS undercover agent, prosecutors said. The Clayton County woman claimed the agent owned a beauty salon business and had $30,000 in business expenses. Ford charged the agent $510 and e-filed the return, claiming the agent was owed $4,000.
“By filing thousands of false tax returns this defendant caused the U.S. Treasury to issue millions of dollars in fraudulent refunds to her clients,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in announcing Ford’s guilty plea. “This conviction should make abusive return preparers think twice before attempting to rob the U.S. Treasury.”
Prosecutors said taxpayers who relied on Ford still are liable for the taxes they were wrongly refunded and the taxes they did not pay.
Ford faces the possibility of up to six years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each of two criminal counts. She has also agreed to pay the government more than $5.7 million restitution. A sentencing date has not been determined.
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