Two tax preparers based in North Carolina have admitted falsifying tax returns. Karen Marie Jones Audrey Renetta Odom this month pleaded guilty to charges that alleged their actions caused a $1.2 million loss in tax revenue.
From 2012 through 2016, Jones, who owned Jones and Stone Taxes, fabricated education expenses, among other elements of fraud, to boost client refunds. The two charged some clients up to $2,000 for preparing individual returns.
The two face a maximum sentence of five years in prison each for their guilty plea to conspiring to falsify tax returns.
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