Former Camas tax preparer gets prison for filing false returns

Federal prosecutors say a former Camas tax preparer was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to a month in prison for filing false tax documents.

Paula Odia, 44, who now lives in Vancouver, prepared about 80 fraudulent tax returns, which cost the government more than a quarter-million dollars in unpaid taxes, according to a Department of Justice news release.

U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in the release that Odia preyed on the immigrant community, filing falsified deductions and tax credits so she could claim larger shares of the returns.

“Most of Odia’s clients were unaware she had falsified their tax returns or that she directed a portion of their tax refund to her bank account or to accounts belonging to members of her family,” the press release states.

Court records show the scheme was carried out between 2011 and 2016. In that time frame, Odia was preparing federal income taxes for customers from her Camas home, prosecutors said.

When she provided copies of the returns to her customers, those copies were not reflective of what she actually filed with the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

Odia pleaded guilty in October 2017 and has agreed to pay restitution totaling $254,191. She will also serve a year of supervised release.