Danielle Melissa Staten, 40, ran a tax preparation shop in Greenville, North Carolina. A federal judge has now sent her to prison for more than two years for it.
U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III handed down the sentence, followed by one year of supervised release. He also ordered her to repay $1,508,171 to the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced the outcome on Wednesday, Sept. 23. She was sentenced for aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return.
Made-up businesses on real returns
Staten owned and operated Precise Tax Preparation, LLC. From 2018 to 2023, prosecutors said, she prepared and filed false federal income tax returns for other people. The losses to the government came to approximately $1.5 million.
The lever was Schedule C, the form sole proprietors use to report what their business earned and spent. Staten invented income and expenses on those forms, according to prosecutors. The fake figures reshaped her clients’ earned income, which in turn fed fraudulent Earned Income Tax Credit claims and bigger refunds than their real finances supported.
That matters because earned income decides both whether someone qualifies for the credit and how much they can claim.
The company on paper
State records show Precise Tax Preparation was created on August 13, 2018, the same year prosecutors say the false filings began. Staten signed the Articles of Organization and served as the first registered agent, with a principal office in Greenville. An amended 2022 annual report still listed her as chief executive and described the business as tax preparation, accounting and consulting, though by then the principal office had moved to Rocky Mount. North Carolina dissolved the company on October 5, 2023, for failing to file an annual report.
IRS Criminal Investigation’s Charlotte Field Office investigated. The case was prosecuted as United States v. Danielle Melissa Staten, number 4:26-CR-15-D.
What clients can check
The IRS advises taxpayers to read a finished return before signing and to ask about anything that looks wrong or unfamiliar. Schedule C should match a business the taxpayer actually operates. Paid preparers must sign the returns they prepare and include a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number, but the agency says the person whose name is on the return stays responsible for what it reports. Anyone who suspects a preparer entered false information or altered a return without permission can use the IRS preparer complaint process.
Sources
- Greenville tax preparer gets over 2 years for $1.5M fraud scheme – AOL
- A Tax Preparer Made Up Business Income and Expenses to Boost Refunds. She Got More Than 2 Years in Prison and a $1.5 Million Restitution Order
