Hayden O’Byrne United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida | The Florida Bar
The owner of a South Florida tax preparation business has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison following her guilty plea in December 2024. She admitted to aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns. In addition to the prison sentence, she will serve one year of supervised release and pay over $20 million in restitution to the IRS.
Beatriz Toledo, aged 61, owned Immigration and Tax Service Group LLC. Between 2017 and 2021, Toledo deliberately prepared false tax returns for clients through her company. The fraudulent claims included Residential Energy Credits, false itemized deductions for state and local sales taxes, and fabricated business expenses. These actions reduced her clients' taxable income, resulting in larger refunds.
Toledo's scheme involved submitting around 7,800 tax returns with fraudulent residential energy tax credits claims. This led to an underpayment of approximately $20 million in federal taxes by her clients. Her company earned about $7.1 million from these activities by taking fees directly from clients’ refund checks.
In 2010, a permanent injunction was issued against Toledo by a federal district judge under Case No. 09-cv-21987-COOKE. This civil case barred her from preparing false tax returns after she agreed to it on July 26, 2020. Despite this injunction, Toledo continued with illegal activities leading to her indictment in 2024.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Emmanuel Gomez of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office.
The investigation was conducted by IRS-CI’s Miami Field Office with Assistant U.S. Attorney Will J. Rosenzweig prosecuting the case.
Further details can be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl or related court documents at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 24-cr-20147.
