A North Dallas, Texas, tax preparer has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and ordered to pay the government $11.9 million in restitution. Alma Jean Gilbert, age 54, was sentenced after pleading guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a materially false tax return in October 2019.
Gilbert has owned and operated Touch Tax Solutions in Dallas since 2011 and opened an additional office in Mesquite in 2016.
Court papers show she prepared and caused to be filed hundreds of fraudulent client tax returns from 2012 through 2017. The IRS said she used a variety of false credits and deductiotions, such a false education credits, fuel tax credits and business losses to boost client refunds.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind