Columbus tax service operator pleads guilty to tax fraud in federal court
The woman who ran the Columbus tax service Superior Taxes has pleaded guilty to making false tax-credit claims of more than $500,000 for some of her clients.
She also admitted to failing to pay her own personal taxes.
Nadine Word, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to aiding and assisting in presenting fraudulent income tax returns and to willfully failing to pay her own taxes, authorities said.
She faces up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine for the first offense, and up to a year in prison and a $25,000 fine for the second count.
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land set her sentencing for June 13.
The IRS alleged that from January 2014 to April 2018, Word submitted fraudulent tax documents to increase tax refunds for her clients and boost the fees she charged. The total loss in tax revenue was estimated at $586,565.
Word most often submitted false education credits for customers who did not attend the schools listed on the tax forms, prosecutors said.
“An analysis of tax returns claiming education credits revealed that 408 of 494 claims filed by Word had no supporting education records at the documented educational institution,” said the U.S. Attorney’s office. “Additionally, the IRS evaluated 31 individual returns finding false education credits, false earned income credits and false business expenses. Every return included at least one false item.”
Word’s federal indictment singled out nine specific examples of tax returns with false information, four each in 2016 and 2017, and one in 2018.