JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An income tax return preparer in Jacksonville has been indicted on federal charges of tax fraud, according to a news release from the State Attorney’s Office in Florida.
Kenyan Shondre Scott is charged with 55 counts of aiding and assisting others with the filing of false tax returns and four counts of filing false tax returns on his own behalf. Each count carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment, according to the Department of Justice.
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According to the indictment, Scott owned and operated a tax preparation business in Jacksonville and began preparing tax returns for others in 2009. Between February 2014 and April 2018, investigators said Scott defrauded the IRS by filing returns for clients in which he falsely claimed that the clients were eligible for certain itemized deductions.
In addition, the news release said he falsely claimed that some clients had incurred business losses when they did not own a business. The indictment specifically alleges the filing of 55 false returns on behalf of 13 taxpayers for the tax years 2013 through 2017.
The indictment also accuses Scott of fraudulently reporting fake wages and a disproportionate amount of taxes being withheld from those purported wages in an attempt to lower the amount of taxes owed.