A Durham, N.C.-based tax preparer has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Tasha Renee Smith must also serve three years of supervised release and pay $375,578 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. She pleaded guilty on April 8.

For parts of the filing seasons for tax years 2005, 2006 and 2007. Smith worked at Nothing But Taxes, which had branches throughout North Carolina. Smith, who worked at the Durham office, added non-existent dependents to returns and inflated the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income clients by adding additional, fictitious income. During the latter two seasons, she made what were described as extensive efforts to purchase names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers that could be used to claim phony dependents. Smith collected a side cash payment for the IDs that were sold.

In 2008, Smith and two business partners opened their own business, Tax Wizards, with branches in Durham and Roxboro, N.C. That business was called a center of fraud with Smith encouraging preparers to keep phony claims in the $1,200-to-$1,500 range to avoid IRS scrutiny. In 2009, she and another partner opened Keystone Tax Services in Durham, which followed the same pattern. About April 2011, she closed both businesses because there so much fraud involving so much money, she feared IRS detection.

Early in 2012, Smith and others opened Tax Solutions, which had four branches. Smith hired at least one manager she knew had been involved in fraud. Preparers at the new business also were falsifying numerous returns.