New York Tax Return Preparer Pleads Guilty to Preparing False Tax Returns

A Brooklyn, New York tax return preparer pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

Phillip Baynes, 51, was charged in a 31-count indictment with preparing false tax returns for tax years 2008, 2009 and 2010 for 12 clients of his tax return preparation business, Small Mans Accounting and Tax Service, located in Brooklyn.  The indictment filed last March alleged that Baynes included false and fraudulent expenses on the clients’ tax returns, including false itemized deductions for charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee expenses. 

U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto set sentencing for May 31, 2016.  Baynes faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

Acting Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo thanked agents of Internal Revenue Service– Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case and Trial Attorneys Mark Kotila and Brittney N. Campbell of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.