By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A Paulina woman who owns a Luling-area tax preparation business was recently charged in federal court with filing false tax returns for her clients and for herself.

Laura Diggs, 41, was charged Thursday with one count of false statements on tax returns and one count of assisting in the preparation of false tax documents, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.

According to court documents, from 2007 through 2009 Diggs prepared and filed false income tax returns for customers at her business, Diggs Tax Service in Luling. The returns contained false Schedule A deductions that resulted in inflated refunds for her customers to which they were not entitled.

Additionally, according to the bill of information on the case, in the years 2007, 2008 and 2009, Diggs signed her own tax returns that under-reported the business income she had received. In total, Diggs failed to report approximately $766,761 in gross income, to which there is a total tax liability of $210,233.

If convicted on either count, Diggs faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and up to one year of supervised release. Agents from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division are investigating the case.