SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A former IRS employee has been sentenced to 24 months in prison and fined $150,000 for preparing false tax returns, according to court documents. Hector Cavazos, a 63-year-old resident of San Antonio, was found guilty of aiding in the preparation of 61 fraudulent tax returns.
Cavazos operated a tax return preparation business where he assisted 13 taxpayer-clients and one undercover agent in filing false returns for tax years 2016 through 2021, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. The fraudulent returns, which included false Schedule C losses, resulted in a tax loss of $579,682. Cavazos did not sign any of the returns as a paid preparer, defying IRS regulations.
Cavazos, who was employed by the IRS until 1996, had a prior conviction for fraud in the Eastern District of California. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and collusion to defraud the United States and served two months in prison in 2000. On September 4, 2024, Cavazos was indicted on 27 counts of preparing false tax returns and pleaded guilty to one count on July 1, 2025…