Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Tammy P. Royster, age 41, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, today to 15 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for six counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns. Judge Williams also entered an order that Royster pay restitution of $201,000, the balance of tax loss remaining to date, after partial payment was made by Royster’s clients.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Sparkman of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.

According to Royster’s plea agreement, Royster owned and operated a tax return preparation business known as Nevets Tax Services, located at several different locations, including 8841 Annapolis Road in Lanham, Maryland. From 2005 to 2007, Royster helped taxpayers minimize their tax liability by fabricating or inflating expenses, deductions and credits claimed on their individual income tax return, including education credits or tuition fees, charitable contributions, unreimbursed employee expenses and losses associated with a business.

For example, on April 20, 2007, Royster prepared a false 2006 individual income tax return for an IRS undercover agent (UC) claiming $16,679 of fictitious Schedule A expenses, including $5,555 of charitable contributions, $1,409 of education credits and $9,715 of unreimbursed employee expenses. The UC did not provide Royster with any information about these Schedule A expenses. That return claimed a refund of $2,268.

Royster also routinely overstated charitable contributions. In some cases, when clients did not have businesses, Royster appended a fraudulent Schedule C to the return and created false income and expenses to allow the client to claim a loss from the purported business on their returns. These false deductions and expenses lowered his clients’ tax liabilities, resulting in substantially larger refunds than the clients were entitled to receive.

From 2005 to 2007, Royster filed fraudulent income tax returns that resulted in a tax loss of $228,343.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Bryan E. Foreman, who prosecuted the case.