The Bozo side of my profession has had a busy week. Yeah, it’s tax season, but we have some pretty bad tax preparers highlighted here.
First, we go to Queens, New York. Tommasina (a/k/a Tammy) Paolino operated Titan Enterprises in the Ridgewood area of Queens. She’s been accused of first-degree grand larceny, first-degree identity theft, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records, second-degree possession of a forged instrument and related tax charges. And that allegedly cost the State of New York $4 million in bogus refunds.
Next, we head to Kingsport, Tennessee. Donna Rees (aka Donna K. Blessing and Donna Blessing Bortz) operates B&B Tax Service. She apparently has had a good year, and the IRS thinks they know the reason. According to her indictment, Ms. Rees, “directed and encouraged persons for whom she had prepared tax returns to create false, fictitious and fraudulent documents and records to be used in civil audits.” When the IRS showed up at her office to ask her questions about 22 allegedly phony returns, she’s alleged to have cooked up phony documents on the spot. She’s alleged to have used fake business deductions and phony farming losses to get her clients bigger refunds. And that’s not Ms. Rees’ only troubles with the law; she’s already facing a federal bank fraud indictment.
So if your tax preparer volunteers to create phony deductions, just remember it’s an offer you can refuse. And if you know your tax preparer as “Tom” but he signs his name as “Dick” or “Harry,” you may want to inquire a bit….