OAKLAND – A federal criminal complaint unsealed today charges Traci Austin with aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson.
The complaint describes Austin, 44, of Brentwood, Calif., as the owner of a tax return preparation business called Emeryville Tax Services (“ETS”). According to the complaint, Austin prepared materially false and fraudulent tax returns for her clients by including false and/or inflated Schedule A expenses, false and/or inflated Schedule C income and expenses, and false dependents. By doing this, Austin fraudulently reduced her clients’ taxable income and tax liability, thereby resulting in larger refunds for the client and higher return preparation fee income for Austin. The investigation has revealed that Austin allegedly assisted in the preparation of at least 42 fraudulent tax returns and an estimated tax loss of well over $697,000 to the federal government.
In addition to the false and fraudulent tax return preparation scheme, the complaint also alleges that since 2016, Austin has hosted a “Tax School” through ETS and charged a fee of at least $200 for students to attend the tax school. According to the complaint, the goal of the tax school was to hire the attendees as preparers for ETS and prepare tax returns for ETS…
