Tax Return Preparer Headed to Prison For Tax Evasion

Posted on February 14, 2017

Semere Tsehaye owned and operated at least 20 Instant Tax Service franchise locations from 2005 through 2011, some of which were located in Illinois. Instant Tax Service was a tax preparation business.

For the taxable years 2010 and 2011, Tsehaye prepared fraudulent financial summaries understating the income he earned from his tax preparation business and provided these fraudulent summaries to his tax return preparer. As a result, the tax returns that were ultimately filed by the IRS underreported his income by more than $500,000 in 2010 and more than $1,000,000 in 2011.

As a result of this scheme, Tsehaye evaded more than $1,500,000 in federal taxes. Tsehaye was convicted of two counts of tax evasion and was recently sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $298,178.00 in restitution to the IRS.

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