A San Bernardino County tax preparer, who falsely claimed to be an active CPA, has been sentenced to 26 months in federal prison. Scott Douglas Cutting Sr., 70, of Apple Valley, drew the sentence after being found guilty of tax fraud.
Cutting was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for filing phony returns for which the IRS issued refunds. He was found guilty on six counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent tax returns.
Between 2008 and 2016, Cutting prepared about 477 fake returns, which he filed without identifying himself as a preparer and also filed for people who who weren't clients, including dead people. Besides stealing ID information for the returns, he hired recruiters to purchase taxpayer IDs.
Also, Cutting identified himself as a CPA even though his license expired 30 years ago.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind