Tax Cheat Taylor Gets 2 Years

CHICAGO – Lisa Lloyd Taylor, 57, of Country Club Hills, Illinois, is headed to federal prison after being sentenced to two years for a systematic campaign of fraud targeting multiple federal agencies. The owner of Ebiz Accounting Services built her business on a foundation of lies, bilking the IRS, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Social Security Administration out of over $1.2 million.

From 2010 to 2013, Taylor willfully filed false tax returns for both herself and her company, Ebiz Accounting Services, deliberately underreporting income. But the scheme didn’t stop there. Between 2011 and 2015, Taylor extended her fraudulent practices to thousands of client tax returns, falsely claiming charitable contributions and childcare expenses to inflate refunds. The total federal and state tax loss resulting from Taylor’s schemes exceeded $1.02 million, according to federal prosecutors.

The scope of Taylor’s deception reached beyond tax fraud. She also illegally secured over $53,000 in financial aid benefits for her children by underreporting her income to the Department of Education. Court records show her children would not have qualified for these grants without the false information provided. It was a calculated effort to enrich herself at the expense of legitimate students, sources say.

Adding insult to injury, Taylor brazenly collected more than $134,000 in Social Security disability benefits she wasn’t entitled to. From 2011 to 2017, she actively concealed the extent of her work and income from the Social Security Administration while simultaneously running her accounting business. This wasn’t simply a case of oversight; it was a deliberate act of theft from a system designed to help those genuinely in need.

U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood handed down the sentence Friday following a hearing in Chicago. Taylor pleaded guilty to federal tax and theft charges, acknowledging the extent of her wrongdoing. United States Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr., and Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, announced the sentence, emphasizing the seriousness of the offenses.

The investigation benefited from substantial assistance from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Eichenseer prosecuted the case. Taylor’s sentencing serves as a stark reminder that even seemingly sophisticated financial crimes will be pursued and punished to the fullest extent of the law, officials stated.