“Ghost preparer” pleads guilty for role in tax return scheme

Date: March 27, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

Houston - A local woman has admitted to aiding or assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck.

From 2017 to 2023, Jamie Nevid Wallace owned Donahue Tax Service and operated as a "ghost preparer" to conceal her involvement in the scheme. As such, she made it seem that clients were filing their own returns without the assistance of anyone else. Wallace was required to obtain and use a Provider Tax Identification Number on any returns she prepared but instead concealed her role by creating accounts for her clients using tax preparation software.

Wallace prepared false tax returns that included fraudulent Schedule A deductions and Schedule C business and education credits, which generated refunds her clients should not have received. She also charged fees for those returns.

As part of her plea, she admitted to filing a false 2021 income tax return that included $68,453 in false Schedule A deductions, $36,852 in false Schedule C losses for a business that did not exist and a false education credit showing expenses supposedly paid to a local university. These false entries resulted in $18,075 in tax loss.

Wallace has admitted responsibility for $244,824 in losses to the IRS and has agreed to pay that amount in restitution.

U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett will impose sentencing June 25. At that time, Wallace faces up to three years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

She was permitted to remain on bond pending that hearing.

IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Gray is prosecuting the case.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.