A Las Vegas tax preparer, who for years falsified exemptions and reductions for clients that cost the U.S. government about $3 million, was sentenced this week to a year in prison, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada.
Anita Edoria Santa Ana, 61, will spend a year and a day in federal prison followed by a year of supervised release, officials said.
At her sentencing hearing Monday, she faced up to three years in prison, according to her plea agreement in which she accepted responsibility for one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false tax return.
The scheme ran from tax years 2012 to 2018 out of her businesses named Santana Tax Service and Silver Income Tax, officials said.
The returns claimed deductions and exemptions, including charitable donations, and falsified business and moving expenses, officials said.
In one example, prosecutors outlined in the plea agreement, Santa Ana defrauded the IRS of $3,730 by falsely claiming in a tax form about $8,500 in donations and exemptions for a couple.
In total, Santa Ana cost the IRS about $2.9 million in losses during the six-year period, officials said.
Federal prosecutors filed the case in February, and Santa Ana pleaded guilty the following month.