A woman who used her position at a tax service business in Republic to prepare and transmit fraudulent income tax returns has been sentenced to serve more than three years in federal prison.
Tina Louise Yager, of Springfield, Illinois, was sentenced in federal court Wednesday, May 6 for one count of wire fraud and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent claims. According to documents filed in federal court, she moved to southwest Missouri in 2021, most recently residing in Nixa.
In addition to her 38-month prison sentence and three years of supervised release, Yager was also ordered to pay nearly $17,000 in restitution, the same amount as she embezzled. That includes roughly $14,500 to the Internal Revenue Service and $2,400 to the Missouri Department of Revenue.
The 67-year-old woman used her tax preparer position with Jackson-Hewitt Tax Service in Republic to abuse personal financial information of others to prepare false tax returns. According to court documents, Yager would file tax returns for at least nine customers of Jackson-Hewitt without their knowledge and then direct any refunds to herself instead of the proper taxpayers. She would include her information in filings and would add false dependents to receive additional deductions. She worked at the tax service office in Republic from fall 2023 through spring of 2024.
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