Tax service owner in Gulfport files false returns

A tax preparer in Gulfport pleaded guilty to falsifying returns, resulting in $900,000 worth of losses in the United States.

According to U.S. District Attorney Mike Hurst and the justice department’s tax division, Alvin Mays, the owner of City Tax Service, prepared and trained his employees to prepare false tax returns from 2012 to 2017.

Mays charged unreasonably high preparation fees for clients and claimed false education credits and losses from fictitious businesses, leading to inflated refunds.

Mays now faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison on each count and will have to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to the United States.