Tax Return Preparer Pleads Guilty

PHLADELPHIA - Carmen Basilis, 52, of Reading, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty yesterday to tax fraud charges admitting that she had falsified miscellaneous deductions on her clients’ tax returns in order to obtain inflated tax refunds which her clients where not entitled to receive.  U.S. District Court Judge James Knoll Gardner scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 5, 2016.

In lieu of receiving United States Treasury Checks, Basilis’ clients applied for Refund Anticipation Loans which permitted them to receive a loan from a bank within several days following the filing of their returns. By executing IRS Form 8888, Basilis caused a portion of the filer’s refund to be deposited into her personal bank account, a fact not known by her clients.  After doing so, Basilis issued the Refund Anticipation Loan checks to her clients.  The IRS, in turn, sent the bank the refund that Basilis had requested from the United States Treasury, to pay off the loans that the filers had been issued.  In addition to taking a portion of the filer’s refund, Basilis also charged her clients a fee for preparing and electronically filing the returns with the Internal Revenue Service.    

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigations and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Floyd J. Miller.