CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Cristina Gonzalez, a local tax return preparer, has been caught in a massive tax evasion scheme, admitting to willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of false U.S. Income Tax Returns for others and filing a false income tax return for herself.
Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez, along with Special Agent in Charge Rick Goss of IRS – Criminal Investigation (CI), announced the guilty plea today. Gonzalez defrauded the United States by not reporting income she had earned on her personal income tax return and preparing fraudulent tax returns for others.
“This action today serves to show that running a business based around defrauding the U.S. taxpayers is no way to do business,” said Goss. “Gonzalez, acting as a tax return preparer, submitted numerous false tax returns to the IRS causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
During tax years 2011 through 2014, Gonzalez operated a tax preparation business in Alice, which prepared and filed more than 1,200 federal income tax returns for clients. More than 99% of returns Gonzalez prepared claimed a refund, and nearly 60% of the returns claimed the maximum earned income tax credit.
An IRS review of returns Gonzalez filed showed many of the returns included suspicious “household help” income in specific amounts, which maximized earned income credits and resulted in significantly larger tax refunds to her clients. IRS agents located and interviewed the taxpayers associated with 47 of these returns, finding that the income each of these taxpayers reported was significantly less than the amount of income reported in the tax returns Gonzalez filed.
Gonzalez also prepared and filed her own personal federal income tax returns for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, failing to report any income generated through her tax preparation business. She collected fees from clients ranging from $350 up to $2,280 per return, receiving many of these fees by instructing the IRS to “split” the taxpayer’s refund and send a portion of the refund to bank accounts Gonzalez owned or controlled.
Gonzalez faces up to five years in federal prison for the personal tax evasion as well as another three years for aiding in the preparation of false tax returns for others. Both convictions also carry a possible $250,000 maximum fine. Senior U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey accepted the plea today and has set sentencing for Oct. 16, 2017.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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