{"id":17489,"date":"2026-10-07T02:58:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T02:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/san-antonio-tax-preparing-business-owner-sentenced-to-federal-prison-ordered-to-pay-3-8-million\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T02:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T02:59:00","slug":"san-antonio-tax-preparing-business-owner-sentenced-to-federal-prison-ordered-to-pay-3-8-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/san-antonio-tax-preparing-business-owner-sentenced-to-federal-prison-ordered-to-pay-3-8-million\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio tax preparing business owner sentenced to federal prison, ordered to pay $3.8 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 A San Antonio woman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksat.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/10\/san-antonio-tax-preparing-business-owner-convicted-of-filing-false-returns-doj-says\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">convicted of falsifying tax forms<\/a> on behalf of her clients was sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay more than $3.8 million dollars in restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a news release, the DOJ said a federal judge sentenced Natasha Sheree Banks-Brown, 45, to 53 months in prison. She was also ordered to pay $3,824,887 in restitution and $1,100 in special assessments.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Videos<\/p>\n<p>In April, Banks-Brown was convicted of filing false returns through her business, Tasha\u2019s Total Tax Service, which she started in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The IRS opened an investigation into her business in 2020 amid an \u201cincreasing number of questionable tax returns prepared by Banks-Brown,\u201d the DOJ said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, Banks-Brown filed clients\u2019 tax returns with \u201cfalse and fraudulent deductions and credits,\u201d which, in turn, allowed for the clients to rake in larger tax returns.<\/p>\n<p>Because Banks-Brown never quoted her clients a price for her services, investigators said she took a chunk of her clients\u2019 fees from their tax refunds and funneled them into a bank account she controlled, the DOJ said. Her clients would then receive a part of their return from her bank account.<\/p>\n<p>Banks-Brown was indicted and arrested in April 2024. According to the DOJ, she was found guilty two years later on 11 counts following a four-day jury trial.<\/p>\n<p>Read also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksat.com\/news\/local\/2026\/10\/05\/theyve-been-tracking-it-bexar-county-deputies-used-license-plate-readers-to-flag-houston-man-before-unconstitutiona\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Jury rules Bexar County deputies unconstitutionally used license plate readers on Houston man<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksat.com\/news\/local\/2026\/10\/05\/13-year-old-charged-with-capital-murder-ordered-detained-after-no-parent-appears-at-hearing\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">13-year-old charged with capital murder ordered to remain detained after no parent appears at hearing<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksat.com\/news\/local\/2026\/10\/03\/bexar-county-man-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-2017-murder-weeks-after-receiving-separate-life-sentence\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Bexar County man sentenced to life in prison for 2017 murder, weeks after receiving separate life sentence<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A San Antonio woman convicted of falsifying tax forms on behalf of her clients was sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay more than $3.8 million dollars in restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.<br \/>\nIn a news release, the DOJ said a federal judge sentenced Natasha Sheree Banks-Brown, 45, to 53 months in prison. She was also ordered to pay $3,824,887 in restitution and $1,100 in special assessments.<br \/>\nRecommended Videos<br \/>\nIn April, Banks-Brown was convicted of filing false returns through her business, Tasha\u2019s Total Tax Service, which she started in 2016.<br \/>\nThe IRS opened an investigation into her business in 2020 amid an \u201cincreasing number of questionable tax returns prepared by Banks-Brown,\u201d the DOJ said.<br \/>\nAccording to the DOJ, Banks-Brown filed clients\u2019 tax returns with \u201cfalse and fraudulent deductions and credits,\u201d which, in turn, allowed for the clients to rake in larger tax returns.<br \/>\nBecause Banks-Brown never quoted her clients a price for her ser..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tie-business","category-local","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17500,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions\/17500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlinnews24.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}