MONTGOMERY, Alabama – A Cowarts woman who prepared federal income tax returns for clients at a Dothan business was sentenced November 10 to 33 months in federal prison for filing false returns, U.S. Attorney Thomas Govan of the Middle District of Alabama announced.
The court ordered 40-year-old Markita Latrice Thornton to serve one year of supervised release after her prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Patrick M. Palmer of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Atlanta Field Office joined Govan in announcing the sentence.
How the scheme worked
According to her plea agreement and other court records, Thornton began preparing returns in 2016 at a tax preparation business in Dothan. She generally did not require clients to pay when she did the work. The Internal Revenue Service deducted her fees from clients’ refunds before it issued the money.
The plea agreement cites two examples. On January 6, 2022, Thornton filed a return for a client that falsely reported $10,995 in business income from a business she knew did not exist…