Houston tax preparer sentenced for filing fraudulent tax returns
HOUSTON - A local tax preparer has been sentenced to federal prison for willfully preparing a fraudulent 2018 joint income tax return, according to U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
Lynettia Profit, who operated JNL Tax Services in Houston, pleaded guilty back in October 2023.
Profit has been ordered to serve 12 months and one day in federal prison to be immediately followed by one year of supervised release.
According to a release, at the hearing, the court heard how Profit and her business executed a long-running scheme to claim false credits on her clients' behalf, and sought to evade IRS scrutiny.
As part of the judgment, Profit must pay over $336,000 in restitution.
Profit admitted that between 2016 and 2019, she filed fraudulent tax returns for taxpayers. In those tax returns, Profit knowingly reported false education credits and expenses on Schedule C forms to generate larger income tax refunds for her clients.
Officials said in 2019, she prepared an income tax return that contained two false $2,500 education credits as well as $70,743 in false expenses that were listed on Schedule C. As a result, the government suffered a tax loss of approximately $22,101. Profit also prepared a false return containing education credits and Schedule C expenses for an undercover agent in February 2020.
Profit was permitted to remain on bond and will voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.