Southwest Georgia tax preparer ordered to pay fines, go to jail after not paying taxes

WSBTV.com News Staff
·2 min read

A southeast Georgia man was ordered to go to jail for two years and pay $600,000 in fines and restitution after evading tax payments for years.

The man, Samir Patel of Statesboro, was a tax preparer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Officials said Patel pled guilty to tax evasion on Tuesday, admitting to filing false income tax returns that hid close to $1.3 million in income from 2015 to 2017.

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USDOJ said Patel will have to pay $550,000 in restitution to the U.S. as well as a $95,000 fine, plus serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of federal prison.

According to court documents, Patel bought a tax franchise business where he hired, trained and supervised tax preparers, while still preparing returns for customers.

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At the same time, Patel “willfully filed false income tax returns that omitted more than $1.28 million in income – including almost $1.18 million from S&W Amusements, a company that placed coin-operated amusement machines in convenience stores and gas stations – and evaded proper assessment of his personal taxes for years 2015, 2016, and 2017.”

As part of Patel’s sentence, he’ll be banned from preparing tax returns for others, or entities where he has no interest, during the three years of supervised release.

“Much of our nation’s operating revenues are dependent on the lawful participation of citizens in the income tax system, and those who evade their responsibilities place a greater burden on everyone else,” U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg said in a statement. “This sentence demonstrates the substantial consequences of attempting to cheat the system.”

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