A North Carolina tax preparer, who charged some clients up to $3,000 for preparing tax returns, has been sentenced to 22 months in prison. Karen Marie Jones of Durham, N.C., must also pay $1,264,493 in restitution to the United States and undergo three years of supervised release.Jones, who owned Jones and Stone Taxes, was charged with conspiring to defraud the United States. Her two co-conspirators, Andrea Marie Pasley and Audrey Renetta Odom have pleaded guilty to similar charges,
According to court documents, Jones and the other two defendants prepared false returns from 2012 through 2017. They used techniques such as claiming false education credits or dependents or by manipulating clients’ income to qualify for larger earned income tax credits to produce larger client returns
Pasley, who pleaded guilty this week, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 11. Odom, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS in December, is scheduled to be sentenced in June 2021.
