Rockford Woman Pleads Guilty to Preparing and Filing False Income Tax Returns

ROCKFORD — A Rockford woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court to preparing and filing false income tax returns for others.

GRETCHEN ALVAREZ, 49, operated a tax preparation business called Sick Credit Repair Tax and Legal Services.  Alvarez represented herself as an income tax preparer and held herself out to clients as a person trained in and knowledgeable about the preparation and filing of federal income tax returns.  Alvarez did not have an IRS-issued Preparer Tax Identification Number to prepare federal income tax returns.

Alvarez admitted in a plea agreement that in 2019 and 2020 she misrepresented taxpayers’ eligibility for education tax credits and deducted fictitious business expenses from their taxable income.  Alvarez fraudulently reduced the taxpayers’ tax liabilities and improperly qualified taxpayers for refunds that were greater than those to which the taxpayers were entitled.  The total tax loss was $356,881.00.

Alvarez faces a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment. This offense also carries a maximum fine of $100,000.  U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston set sentencing for Sept. 17, 2025, at 1:30 p.m.

The guilty plea was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of IRS Criminal Investigation.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Kim.