MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee tax examiner for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with filing false returns and keeping parts of tax refunds for herself.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Thursday that Linda Williams, 52, prepared fake tax returns for friends and relatives that claimed more than $500,000 in false tax deductions to inflate their refunds.
Williams would then take a portion of the refunds and transfer the money to her personal bank account, prosecutors said. The deductions were related to medical expenses, charitable contributions and business expenses, prosecutors said.
“Many of these citizens were unaware of the false deductions discovered on their tax returns,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
Williams was indicted for filing 10 false tax returns. She faces up to three years in prison if convicted. It was not immediately clear in Williams had a lawyer to comment on her behalf Thursday.
