A woman in another state recently pleaded guilty to a form of tax fraud. She has yet to be sentenced, but she may end up facing years behind bars and have to pay a significant fine. The lesson here — whether one resides in Connecticut or elsewhere, and whether one does his or her own taxes or taxes for other individuals — is that tax crimes do not pay.
According to a news report, the 31-year-old female was arrested and charged for falsifying information on tax returns in order to receive higher refunds for her clients. It is unknown if her clients were aware that this was happening. Most people want to trust their accountants to do their jobs honestly.
Due to the nature of the crime, this case is being heard in federal court. A judge may sentence the woman to 3 years in prison and order her to pay a fine of $100,000. These are the maximum possible penalties in this case. Only time will tell what the judge decides in this matter.
Here’s the deal, as was stated before: tax crimes do not pay. The Internal Revenue Service has people constantly reviewing taxes, looking for errors or fraudulent information, and they are likely to find them and pursue justice. Failure to pay taxes in full or taking a refund that is larger than what one is really owed hurts all tax payers. As such, leniency is not generally the name of the game in these cases. Connecticut residents who stand accused of falsifying tax returns, fraud or other tax crimes can help themselves by turning to an attorney who has experience in handling such cases.
Source: thestate.com, “This accountant got a huge payout from the IRS — but now she might go to prison”, Noah Feit, April 10, 2018