Long Beach Tax Preparer Sentenced for Aiding in False Tax Return

Los Angeles — Rathana Ung and former director and officer of Lim’s Income Tax and Lim’s Tax Inc. in Long Beach, was sentenced to 12 months and a day imprisonment, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay$103,736 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, Dec. 9, for aiding in the preparation of a false federal income tax return.

According to court documents, between 2006 and 2010, Ung, 41, filed at least 60 false Forms 1040 with the IRS containing false deductions and false business losses.  She admitted in court on July 1, 2013 that she knew that the taxpayers for whom the returns were filed were not entitled to claim such deductions when she pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false federal income tax return.

Ung, a resident of Coto De Caza in OrangeCounty, filed federal income tax returns for numerous clients claiming false deductions for mileage, meals and entertainment expenses, and other unreimbursed employee business expenses.  Some of the tax returns contained false Schedules C (Profit or Loss from a Business) and at least one return contained a false deduction for tuition and fees.

Ung admitted in a written plea agreement that she prepared the false returns so that she could obtain more clients by obtaining and maintaining a reputation in the community as a return preparer who would secure large refunds for her clients.

As conditions of her supervised release, Ung was ordered not to prepare tax returns for anyone other than herself or her spouse, if she marries, not to give tax advice to third parties, and to enter into an injunction barring her from preparing returns for third parties in the future.