Survalarie Harris, a tax preparer from Jacksonville, has entered a guilty plea for aiding in the preparation of falsified tax returns, facing up to three years in prison as a consequence. Scheduled for December 10, her sentencing follows on the heels of an investigation revealing Harris's involvement in deceptive practices aimed at reducing tax liabilities and unjustly inflating refunds for clients. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida, in an announcement by United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, details emerged of Harris's scheme utilizing fictitious business losses to exploit the tax system.
While her role was one of trust and accuracy, Harris violated both by fabricating business expenses that taxpayers unknowingly claimed to have incurred. Having braided hair on occasion, an undercover IRS agent posing as a customer was baited into agreeing with Harris's suggestion that this minimal activity could translate into a substantial refund. These returns, padded with losses from businesses that didn't exist, manipulated the Adjusted Gross Income of clients to illegitimately qualify them for Earned Income Credits, according to court documents.
The extent of Harris's fraudulent activity was not confined to a singular instance. IRS agents unearthed a pattern that spanned years, with over 900 falsified returns prepared between 2020 and 2022. The result was a staggering tax loss to the United States, agreed by Harris as part of her plea, to be no less than $1,824,279. This case, uncovered by the dedicated efforts of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, is led into prosecution by Assistant United States Attorney Elisibeth Adams.
Diving into the case's specifics, one instance on March 22, 2022, stands strikingly as a testament to Harris's method. Without requesting any support documents, she fabricated a nonexistent business claiming a net loss on a tax return for an undercover agent. The deception engineered a low enough Adjusted Gross Income for the undercover agent to qualify for a tax credit they weren't entitled to. In the words of court papers, Harris understood the fictitious business losses would trigger an Earned Income Credit falsely.
