Montgomery tax preparer sentenced for including false information on federal returns

A Montgomery tax preparer has been sentenced for making false tax returns and helping in the filing of false tax returns.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson said a federal judge sentenced 47-year-old Natoshia Lashawn Crawford to 30 months in prison today. Federal inmates are not eligible for parole.

Davidson said according to her plea agreement and other court records, from 2018 through 2022, Crawford owned and operated On Time Professional Tax Service. He said in her plea agreement, Crawford admitted that she included false information in tax returns filed on behalf of herself and others.

Doing so caused Crawford and some of her clients to receive greater refunds than they were entitled to receive, he said.

In one example, Davidson said Crawford reported a total income of $23,116 in her 2020 tax return. When Crawford pleaded guilty last year, she admitted that she knowingly excluded other income she received from her business.

The false reporting of Crawford’s income for 2020 resulted in a lower amount of tax due and an underpayment to the IRS in the amount of $32,867, Davidson said.

He said Crawford also admitted that she filed a 2019 return for a client claiming a business loss of $90,171 for a janitorial services business which did not exist. In her plea agreement, Crawford further agreed that the multiple false returns she filed for herself and others during the 2017–2021 tax years caused a total loss of $1,721,047.45 to the IRS, he said.

In addition to the prison sentence, the judge also ordered that Crawford pay restitution to the IRS for losses from returns filed by her for the 2017–2021 tax years.

“For far too long, opportunistic tax return preparers like Ms. Crawford have viewed the IRS as a piggybank,” Davidson said.

“As was the case here, preparers attempt to get larger refunds for themselves and their clients by putting false information on the tax returns they prepare. Hopefully, Ms. Crawford’s sentence will cause anyone who has considered cheating the system like this to honestly and accurately prepare tax returns.”

— Information from the Office of the U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Alabama