Kansas City Woman Pleads Guilty to Preparing and Filing False Income Tax Returns

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City woman pleaded guilty in federal court today to preparing and filing false income tax returns for others.

Tanisha Spencer, 35, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill Morris to aiding in the preparation of a false tax return.

According to court documents, Spencer prepared income tax returns for pay for persons who contacted her via Facebook. She prepared the income tax returns at 4300 Bellefontaine, Kansas City, Missouri, and the returns were electronically filed with the Internal Revenue Service in Kansas City, Missouri. The Federal income tax returns prepared by Spencer included fraudulent Sick Leave and Family Leave credits, illegitimate fuel tax credits, and fraudulently inflated federal tax withholdings. By including these and other fraudulent items on the client’s tax returns, Spencer was able to manufacture substantial refunds to her clients that they would not have been entitled to if the returns had been accurately prepared. Spencer electronically filed returns and charged her clients a return preparation fee of between $500 and $14,840 per return. The 156 returns that Spencer prepared claimed $4,047,531 in refunds, of which the IRS paid out $689,872.

Under federal statutes, Spencer is subject to a sentence of up to 3 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation.