A former Bronx tax preparer has been sentenced to three years in prison for preparing false tax returns.
Patricia Carter, who pleaded guilty in June, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III, becoming the 16th of 26 defendants charged as part of Operation Brass Tax, a joint investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Internal Revenue Service.
Carter owned and operated a tax preparation business, known as Pat's Tax Services, out of her home in the Bronx. For tax years 2002 through 2005, she prepared approximately 1,500 returns, of which nearly 98 percent resulted in refunds totaling at least $7 million.
To achieve larger refunds for her clients, she allegedly inflated or created fictitious expenses and deductions in order to decrease their tax liabilities.
“With today’s sentence, Patricia Carter becomes the latest—but not the last—in a long line of defendants to be held to account for cheating the IRS out of millions of dollars in tax revenues,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement. “There is no place for corruption in the preparation of tax returns, and we will do everything within our power to ensure that the government receives every tax dollar to which it is entitled and that those who violate the law are punished.”
