The owner of a South Florida tax preparation business has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison and one year of supervised release after pleading guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. She was also ordered to pay over $20 million in restitution to the IRS.
Beatriz Toledo, 61, owned Immigration and Tax Service Group LLC. For tax years 2017 through 2021, Toledo, through her company, willfully prepared false and fraudulent tax returns for clients. These false returns included:
- False claims for the Residential Energy Credit
- False itemized deductions for state and local sales taxes
- False business expenses
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These fraudulent claims artificially decreased her clients’ taxable income, resulting in larger tax refunds.
Toledo’s scheme involved submitting approximately 7,800 tax returns with fraudulent claims for residential energy tax credits, leading to an estimated underpayment of $20 million in federal taxes by her clients. Toledo’s company received approximately $7.1 million in tax preparation fees, which were taken directly from clients’ refund checks.
Adding to the severity of her actions, Toledo engaged in this criminal conduct in violation of a permanent injunction previously entered against her by a federal district judge in 2010. In that civil case, the United States had sued to prevent Toledo from preparing false tax returns. Toledo agreed to a permanent injunction, which prohibited her from engaging in the conduct described above. Despite this injunction, Toledo continued her fraudulent activities.
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U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Emmanuel Gomez of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
IRS-CI, Miami Field Office, investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Will J. Rosenzweig prosecuted it.
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