Norwalk Woman Sentenced for Falsifying Income Tax Returns

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The Office for the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut announced Monday that a 38-year-old Norwalk woman had been sentenced to four months of prison for filing falsified tax returns.

Renee Lamar Joseph was identified by authorities as the bookkeeper for Joseph Landscaping and Masonry and, in that capacity, handled the billing, receiving payments and recording payments in the business accounting software, and providing tax related information to tax return preparers for the business owned by her husband.

Joseph pleaded guilty August 16, 2012, to signing a false 2003 joint federal income tax return in April 2004 which misrepresented the business' Schedule C receipts as $221,621 when, in fact, the business receipts for calendar year 2003 were approximately $315,949.

Instead of providing her tax preparers with bank statements or information from the business’s accounting software, Joseph provided summaries, which she created and adjusted, that substantially understated the business’s income, according to the attorney's office.

Joseph is required to make restitution in the amount of $88,095, plus penalties and interest, for the tax years 2002 through 2004 as part of her restitution. She also has been ordered to cooperate with the IRS concerning any outstanding tax obligations on behalf of JLM for payroll taxes and any un-filed tax returns for the period 2002 to 2010.

Following her four-month sentence, Joseph will be required to undergo one year of supervised release, the first four months of which Joseph must spend in home confinement.