WASHINGTON – With tax season in full swing, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) urges U.S. taxpayers and return preparers to be on the lookout for fraud schemes that could compromise their bank accounts and personal information, as well as the U.S. tax system.
Current fraud schemes include:
- Criminals creating fictitious estates and trusts in an attempt to generate fraudulent
refunds.
- New client scams where cyber criminals impersonate new, potential clients to trick tax
preparers into responding to their emails. Once the preparer responds, the scammer
sends a malicious attachment or URL that can compromise the preparer’s computer
systems and allow the attacker to access sensitive client information.
- Tax schemes, some on social media, that encourage taxpayers to file fraudulent returns
featuring inaccurate income, false withholdings or fake credits. Taxpayers are ultimately
responsible for ensuring that information is accurate on their tax returns.
U.S. taxpayers should:
- Protect their wallets and their identities by ensuring they don’t respond to unsolicited
emails, phone calls or texts claiming to be the IRS.
- Choose reputable tax return preparers who sign and enter their preparer tax identification
number (PTIN) on tax forms and don’t promise excessive refunds.
- Rely on IRS.gov for answers to questions about tax forms and eligibility for credits and
deductions.
IRS-CI dedicates nearly 70% of its time and resources to investigating tax crimes that include questionable refund schemes, return preparer fraud, abusive tax schemes, and more. In fiscal year 2024, IRS-CI initiated 1,373 tax crime investigations and identified $2.12 billion in tax fraud.
Six hundred fifteen defendants were sentenced to an average of 27 months in prison for tax crimes during this same timeframe.
A recent case example includes: In October, Michael Ewell, Sr. was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $736,581 in restitution for preparing false tax returns. During tax years 2015 through 2022, Ewell owned and operated Ewell Tax Center, a tax preparation business in West Orange.
Ewell prepared fraudulent tax returns for his clients by claiming false itemized deductions, false business expenses, false education credits, and other false credits to obtain refunds for his clients in amounts greater than those to which they were entitled. During these years, Ewell prepared at least 157 income tax returns on behalf of his clients that were false and fraudulent, causing approximately $824,835 in refunds to be issued to which his clients were not entitled.
From 2017 through 2020, Ewell also knowingly underreported Ewell Tax Center’s gross receipts and claimed false business expenses, resulting in approximately $118,393 of tax loss.
In addition to prison, Ewell was ordered to serve one year of supervised release and is barred from preparing tax returns for anyone other than himself.
