KANSAS CITY— A Kansas City tax preparer pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to filing false tax returns, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Quashanda King, 36, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to assisting in the preparation and filing of a false and fraudulent tax return.

King was a long-time employee of Instant Tax Service as a tax preparer, and managed its office at 11134 Blue Ridge Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. The typical client who had their return prepared at Instant Tax Service was a very low wage earner, typically with under $3,000 in W-2 wages. The clients were unsophisticated in tax or financial matters. When they walked into one of the two offices, they were assigned a preparer, who input their W-2 wages, dependents, and other identifying information into the appropriate field of their electronically filed returns.

King admitted that preparers would insert a completely fabricated Schedule C activity showing the client carried out a business at a modest profit, often inflating the gross receipts of activities such as “doing hair” or “babysitting” in order to maximize the refundable credits available to the client. The evidence suggests that in most of these cases the clients were not really earning any income from braiding hair or from babysitting.

King admitted that she assisted in the filing of seven fraudulent tax returns, resulting in a loss to the government of $26,187.

Under federal statutes, King is subject to a sentence of up to three years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.