The owner of a South Florida tax preparation business who pled guilty in December 2024 to aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns was sentenced to almost five years in federal prison and one year of supervised release post-prison.
She was also ordered to pay over $20 million in restitution to the IRS.
Beatriz Toledo, 61, owned Immigration and Tax Service Group LLC.
For tax years 2017 through 2021, Toledo, through her company, willfully prepared false and fraudulent tax returns for clients, which included false claims for the Residential Energy Credit (allowing taxpayers to claim a credit for qualified energy-saving expenses), false itemised deductions for state and local sales taxes, and false business expenses.
Through these false claims, Toledo’s clients’ taxable income decreased, leading to bigger tax refunds.
During the scheme, Toledo submitted about 7,800 tax returns with fraudulent claims for residential energy tax credits, resulting in her clients’ underpayment of about $20 million in federal taxes.
Toledo’s company received approximately $7.1 million in tax preparation fees that it took directly out of clients’ refund checks.
Toledo engaged in this criminal conduct in violation of a permanent injunction previously entered against her by a federal district judge in 2010. Case No. 09-cv-21987-COOKE. In that civil case, the United States sued to bar Toledo from preparing false tax returns.
Toledo agreed to a permanent injunction, which the district court entered on July 26, 2020. The injunction prohibited her from engaging in the conduct described above.
Despite the injunction’s prohibitions, Toledo continued to prepare false tax returns and was indicted in 2024.
