Larry Wayne Battle, Tax Evasion, Alabama 2019

A Jefferson County man has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Division's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town for the Northern District of Alabama.

Larry Wayne Battle, a tax preparer who owned and operated a tax preparation business in Jefferson County, Alabama, filed a false tax return for 2014. His tax return reported gross receipts of $128,000 but understated his actual gross receipts by approximately $321,638, resulting in a tax loss of $163,401.

Battle pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return and faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. Sentencing is scheduled for July 30, 2019.

Special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney Allison Garnett and Assistant United States Attorney Melissa Atwood are prosecuting the case.

There is zero tolerance for tax preparers who cheat on their own income taxes, said U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town. Federal prosecutors in this district will continue to make prosecuting these cases a priority.

Return preparers have a duty to be honest and truthful on their tax returns they submit throughout the filing season, including their own, said Thomas J. Holloman, Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation for the Atlanta Field Office. This guilty plea is another success in our efforts of defeating the tax cheat and holding them accountable for their actions.

The tax loss in this case is $163,401. Battle faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison. The crime occurred in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/alabama-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-tax-return