BIRMINGHAM – A federal jury on Friday convicted an Atlanta-area woman on 13 tax-related counts following a weeklong trial in U.S. District Court, federal officials announced.
The jury convicted PATRICE ANDERSON, 37, of Fayetteville, Ga., for using her Birmingham-area tax preparation business, Queen’s Fast Tax, to file tax returns on behalf of others in 2010 and 2011 that she knew contained false information. The jury found Anderson guilty of 12 counts of aiding or assisting others to prepare and file false income tax returns and one count of filing her own false income tax return for 2010.
According to evidence during the five-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor, Anderson filed tax returns that claimed refundable credits her clients were not entitled to so that they would receive inflated tax refunds from the government. In return, Anderson would charge the clients abnormally high fees to file their taxes. Anderson charged her clients up to $3,000 per fraudulent tax return, according to testimony.
Anderson testified during the trial that she included only information given to her by clients on the returns she prepared. The government presented evidence, however, that even Anderson’s own 2010, 2011 and 2012 tax returns contained some of the same false items that were characteristic of the fraudulent tax returns she filed for her clients.
Anderson will face up to three years in prison.
IRS, Criminal Investigation, investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Xavier Carter prosecuted.
