A woman who filed false tax returns was sentenced October 13, 2011, to 18 months in federal prison.

Karla Myles, 43, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a June 15, 2011, guilty plea to three counts of making false, fictitious or fraudulent claims on U.S. Income Tax Returns.

At the guilty plea, Myles admitted that, from 2006 through 2008, she knowingly and willfully made and presented to the Internal Revenue Service, at least 22 federal tax returns which she knew to be false, fictitious and fraudulent. Myles prepared the federal tax returns for clients on her personal computer, and electronically filed them with the Internal Revenue Service. All of the tax returns filed claimed a refund pursuant to the Earned Income Tax Credit. These actions resulted in excess tax refunds (to which Myles’ clients were not entitled) of more than $70,000 for tax years 2006 and 2007. In some cases, Myles received payments from the taxpayers for her tax preparation services. In other cases, Myles received payments by directing the deposit of refund payments into specified bank accounts.

Myles was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Myles was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $300 was imposed and restitution was ordered. Myles must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Myles was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn S. Wehde and investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 11-2006.

 

 

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