HOUSTON – A Texas tax preparer has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after officials said she aided and assisted in the preparation of a false U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.
Tiffany Phenix pleaded guilty on April 22. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $284,826 in restitution.
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“Today’s sentencing is a reminder that honest taxpayers need to be careful when choosing a tax return preparer,” said special agent in charge Richard Goss of IRS - Criminal Investigation (CI). “Phenix Tax Service was in the business of exploiting their clients’ tax returns to defraud the IRS and by extension the tax paying public. Putting abusive return preparers out of business is a top priority for IRS-CI.”
According to the news release, Phenix prepared income tax returns for others at Phenix Tax Service in Alice. As part of her plea, she stipulated she prepared a total of 37 false income tax returns for clients and four false income tax returns for herself, resulting in intended tax harm to the IRS of over $284,000.
Officials said Phenix admitted to preparing a false 2015 income tax return for a taxpayer, which included creating a false form W-2. She also claimed on the return false wage amounts, a false Earned Income Tax Credit and a false income tax refund, officials added.
IRS-Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles J. Escher prosecuted the case.