Date: July 6, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov A Minneapolis tax preparer has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison followed by one year of supervised release, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger. According to court documents, Sue Yang, of Circle Pines, operated a tax preparation business in Minneapolis. Yang participated in the IRS's e-file program, a specialized program the IRS offers to qualified tax preparers, and was assigned a unique "Electronic Filing Identification Number" (known as an "EFIN"). In 2010, the IRS conducted a periodic suitability review of Yang and found that he failed to file a 2009 personal income tax return and that he owed substantial federal income taxes from tax years 2005 through 2008. The IRS notified Yang repeatedly that his failure to resolve his tax obligations would result in sanctions, including suspension of his EFIN or his expulsion from the IRS e-file program. In August 2012 Yang was suspended from the IRS e-file program and was no longer authorized to electronically file tax returns. From August 2012 through April 2022, despite his suspension from the e-file program, Yang operated surreptitiously as an e-filing tax preparer. Yang disguised his unauthorized participation in the e-file program by enlisting others to obtain unique EFINs, which Yang then used to file thousands of tax returns electronically on behalf of his customers. These tax returns were electronically transmitted to the IRS purporting to have been prepared by other individuals. From 2012 through 2020, Yang impeded the IRS's suitability review and circumvented his e-file suspension by electronically filing more than 26,000 tax returns using misappropriated EFINs. From 2018 through 2021, Yang received approximately $765,000 in compensation from working as a tax preparer but, in order to further obscure his unauthorized conduct, he did not report any income related to his tax preparation business. Yang's tax crimes resulted in a combined federal tax loss of approximately $214,297, an amount which Yang is ordered to pay in restitution. Yang pleaded guilty on November 29, 2022, to one count of filing a false federal income tax return and one count of corruptly impeding and obstructing the administration of the internal revenue laws. Yang was sentenced today before Judge Eric C. Tostrud. This case was jointly investigated by IRS – Criminal Investigations and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew S. Ebert.
