Having had to deal with a few refugees from Western Tax Service, I’ve seen the damage that a bozo tax preparer can do. But this story is, well, ridiculous.
>From Oronogo, Missouri, comes the story of Carrie Shafer. Ms. Shafer owned her own tax service, TC’s Taxes, from her home in Oronogo. She prepared 1,475 tax returns between 2002 and 2004. There was just one major problem here: Almost all of the returns were false or fraudulent.
Like Western Tax Service, Ms. Shafer never saw a deduction she wouldn’t take for her customers, even if they didn’t have that deduction. Medical, dental, charitable, and business expense deductions were just some of her favorites. And after she was told she was under investigation she continued to prepare returns that had false deductions, and provided false information at audits! That’s either chutzpah or stupidity…or both.
Ms. Shafer pleaded guilty to 40 counts of tax fraud earlier this year. She received three years at Club Fed, and she has already been barred from preparing tax returns in the future. Her customers have already likely received “Dear Valued Taxpayer” letters from the IRS; they’ll have to pay the true amounts owed with interest. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Tags: BozoTaxPreparer