A Macon, Mississippi, tax return preparer was sentenced to 16 months in prison today for aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false tax return, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst for the Southern District of Mississippi.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from approximately January 2012 through April 2016, Shelleen Ivory-Farmer managed ABS Tax Services, a tax preparation business in Macon, Mississippi.

Through the firm, Ivory-Farmer falsified clients’ tax returns by claiming false education credits, itemized deductions, and business and farming losses to fraudulently increase client refunds paid by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The tax loss resulting from the false education credits alone was more than $870,000. The total tax loss caused by Ivory-Farmer was more than $1.1 million.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III ordered Ivory-Farmer to serve one year of supervised release and to pay $236,887 in restitution to the United States.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Hurst thanked special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorney William Montague of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Chalk, who prosecuted the case.