Philadelphia IRS Employee Arrested for Inexplicably Cheating on Taxes

Someone who works for the IRS should be wiser than this. They know what can happen to them.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

A woman in Philadelphia stands accused of failing to report the unemployment compensation she received for five years on her tax return. What's worse, she was a full-time IRS employee when this happened.

Philly. com reports that 51-year-old Lora Lewis took tax credits for income and education, as well as first-time homebuyers' credit that she wasn't eligible for. She also allegedly claimed fake deductions (like one for a car she never bought) in a haphazard attempt to lower her amount of taxable income. 

According to U.S. Attorney's Office for Eastern Pennsylvania, Lewis schemed a total of $39,000 out of the government between 2007 and 2011. 

Lewis faces a charge for filing a false income tax return. Should she be convicted, she could spend a maximum of three years behind bars, in addition to having to pay the IRS—her employer—restitution and a fine of up to $250,000. 

You'd think someone who worked for the IRS would know better than to try and defraud the IRS, but sense obviously isn't common.

[via Philly.com]

Latest in Pop Culture