A Bronx tax preparer has been convicted of using the Social Security numbers of children to file false tax returns.
Davis Jackson, 56, who ran a tax preparation business from his home in the Bronx, was found guilty by a jury in Manhattan Federal Court on April 5 of preparing false tax returns and corruptly impeding the enforcement of the federal tax laws.
Jackson was convicted in connection with the filing of fraudulent tax returns for tax years 2003 to 2005 that generated at least $60,000 in undeserved refunds. Among other things, Jackson used various inflated deductions, along with the personal information of deceased children, in order to create fake dependents, so that he could fraudulently increase the refunds paid to his clients.
For example, for tax year 2002, Jackson listed as dependents on his clients' returns the real names and Social Security numbers of deceased children who had never been dependents of the taxpayers whose returns he filed. Although Jackson was specifically charged with eleven instances of filing false tax returns, the evidence at trial demonstrated that he had submitted hundreds of returns with similar types of excessive deductions.
Separately, on March 15, another Bronx resident, Tasheka Coutrier, 29, of the Bronx, N.Y., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Griesa in Manhattan to selling Social Security numbers and using the Social Security numbers of two children and another person on her tax returns without authorization. Coutrier faces up to five years’ imprisonment. The Coutrier and Jackson cases are unrelated.
“Misuse of Social Security numbers in order to obtain higher refunds on federal tax returns is a serious offense,” said Joseph Foy, a spokesperson for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. “Our investigators are hard at work, often partnering with other agencies and obtaining criminal convictions. The resonating message is that if you are thinking about stealing or misusing a Social Security number, someone will always know something about what you are doing and some sort of paperwork will be left behind that will lead back to you.”
