IRS Employee Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A Memphis IRS employee pleads guilty to filing a false income tax return.

During her plea hearing, Jones admitted that on January 24, 2007, she prepared and filed a 2006 federal income tax return with the IRS for ’Taxpayer H.J.’ that claimed false dependant information, allowing ’Taxpayer H.J.’ to receive a tax refund he or she was not entitled to receive.

Jones was indicted on two counts of filing false returns and 20 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns to be filed with the IRS.

According to the indictment, Jones was hired as a tax examining technician with the IRS in January 2001. Jones allegedly exceeded her authority by stealing data from an IRS databank, specifically numerous taxpayers' personal information. She was accused of using this information to input on various tax returns prepared by Jones for herself and other taxpayers.

From February 2, 2006 to February 8, 2007, Jones allegedly obtained dependant information from the IRS database and placed this information on tax returns she prepared, knowing that the taxpayers were not entitled to claim the dependants.

Jones will be sentenced in December and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000.