BOISE, Idaho (KLIX)- A Burley woman will spend less than a year behind bars for filing false tax returns for her clients. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of Idaho announced Cruz “Kelly” Chacon, 42, was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in a federal prison with one year of supervised release, for advising and counseling clients to submit materially false federal income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service.

Chacon will also have to pay $81,384.00 in restitution. The woman pleaded guilty in February. According to a press release Chacon and some of her employees of Kelly’s Tax Service submitted more than 2,500 falsified tax returns. They claimed tax credits for which their clients were not entitled to such as the “child tax credit” and the “additional child tax credit.” The Attorney’s Office believes this helped get greater tax returns for Chacon’s clients and resulted in more business.

“Those who intentionally submit falsified income tax returns to the IRS victimize all taxpayers because we all share the costs of paying for the improper tax refunds,” U.S. Attorney Olson said.  “We will continue to work closely with the IRS to root out this illegal activity, especially where a tax preparation business assists individuals in breaking the law.”

The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigations division.

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