Washougal man gets year in prison for preparing hundreds of false tax returns

A Washougal man was sentenced to a year in prison for preparing false tax returns through his business based in Idaho and Nevada.

David Lee Brannum, 56, prepared the bogus returns for clients through his business Dave’s Tax Service, according to a statement released Thursday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Idaho.

Brannum was sentenced in Boise, Idaho, by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill. The judge also ordered Brannum pay $101,550 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and placed Brannum on a year of supervised release after his prison sentence ends.

Brannum pleaded guilty in January to one count of counseling clients to submit materially false federal income tax returns to the IRS, prosecutors said.

A plea agreement filed in the case says Brannum submitted hundreds of federal income tax returns from 2003 to 2015.

In the returns, he often claimed fraudulent itemized deductions for his customers that reduced the amount of taxes owed and increased the refunds generated, according to the agreement.

“Specifically, Brannum inflated the amounts of his clients’ charitable contributions and entered amounts for unreimbursed employee expenses that were not substantiated, that he inflated, or that he knew were not allowable,” the prosecutor’s office said.

The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigations Division.