A San Antonio tax preparer who told clients she would take her fee out of their refunds was sentenced to 53 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,824,887 in restitution. Natasha Sheree Banks-Brown, 45, ran Tasha’s Total Tax Service, and a jury found her guilty on April 10 of all 11 counts of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false tax return.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced the sentence on October 6. U.S. District Judge David Ezra also imposed special assessments of $1,100. Prosecutors say she filed close to 1,200 returns between 2017 and 2021 that produced more than $8 million in refunds. Divided across those returns, the refunds average roughly $6,700 each, and the restitution order is a little under half of the refund total. Her 53 months is four years and five months, and the sentence came nearly six months after the April 10 verdict.
The detail that matters most to anyone who pays someone to file a return is where the refund went. Banks-Brown used tax software that let her direct clients’ refunds into a bank account she controlled, then sent each client a portion and kept the rest as her fee. Several clients testified they did not know what she was doing and never reviewed their returns in detail before signing. A refund that lands anywhere other than the filer’s own account, or a return signed without being read, is the opening a preparer like this uses.
The sentence closes a case that began as an IRS Criminal Investigation probe in December 2020, and the court docket is where any further step in it would be recorded.
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A fee that came out of the refund
According to the release, Banks-Brown opened Tasha’s Total Tax Service in 2016 and never quoted a set price. She said she would take her fee from the refund, which left the amount of the fee tied to the size of the refund she could produce. The returns carried false and fraudulent deductions and credits that inflated what clients were due back.
U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said tax professionals like Banks-Brown exploit the complexity of the tax system and that promises of inflated refunds “can be too good to be true.” IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr., of the agency’s Texas field office, said Banks-Brown “is everything we warn you to avoid.”
Eleven counts and a four-day trial
Banks-Brown was indicted on April 3, 2024, and arrested 13 days later, on April 16, 2024. The trial lasted four days and ended with guilty verdicts on April 10, 2026, on every count, two years after the indictment. The investigation started in December 2020, which means the case took about six years from first inquiry to sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Chung and Ryan Groomer prosecuted the case. The $3,824,887 in restitution is the amount the court ordered her to pay. It is different from the more than $8 million in refunds, which the release gives as the total the returns produced rather than a confirmed loss to the Treasury.
The terms of the sentence
The announcement lists the 53-month prison term, the $3,824,887 in restitution and the $1,100 in special assessments, and it does not give a supervised-release term. She was convicted of aiding or assisting in the filing of a false tax return on every count, and the returns at issue span the 2017 through 2021 filing years, five years of filings in which she prepared close to 1,200 returns, an average of about 240 a year.
Checking a preparer and where a refund is set to land
The IRS says anyone can be a paid preparer as long as the person has a Preparer Tax Identification Number, and a PTIN does not mean the preparer has special training. Its page on choosing a tax professional points to the Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications, which lists preparers with IRS-recognized credentials, and notes that certified public accountants, enrolled agents and attorneys are among the types of preparers. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program offers free basic return preparation for people who qualify.
Before signing, the return itself shows the routing. The refund section lists the bank account and routing number for direct deposit, and that account should belong to the filer. A fee quoted as a share of the refund, as in the Banks-Brown case, is a signal to ask for a flat price in writing first.
A preparer who altered a return or misdirected a refund can be reported to the IRS on Form 14157, the Return Preparer Complaint, and the form asks whether a refund was deposited to the filer’s account or paid out by the preparer. The IRS’s complaint page adds that Form 14157-A, an optional affidavit for Form 1040 filers, can request an account change, and that complaints about conduct more than three years old generally cannot be acted on. The IRS handles only federal tax matters, so a state or local problem goes to the state or local agency.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
