BOSTON - The owner of a tax preparation business in Brockton was sentenced today for preparing false tax returns for others as well as filing a false tax return for himself.
Jose Miguel Spinola, 51, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to two years of probation, with the first six months in home detention and ordered to pay restitution of $284,917. In December 2020, Spinola pleaded guilty to two counts of preparing false tax returns and one count of filing a false tax return.
On numerous occasions between 2014 and 2017, Spinola prepared and filed income tax returns for clients that contained false, inflated and incorrect information. Spinola added inflated and ineligible expenses to his clients’ Schedule A deductions for medical and dental expenses and unreimbursed employee business expenses, including claimed meals and entertainment, business miles and work apparel. By inflating Schedule A deductions, Spinola decreased his clients’ taxable income and effectively increased the clients’ tax refunds. Spinola informed his clients of the total tax refund they would receive from the IRS without telling the clients about the false, inflated or ineligible expenses Spinola deducted.
Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell and Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
