Palestine Man Indicted on Numerous Federal Income Tax Charges

TYLER — A Palestine man is being charged with federal income tax violations. Jefferson Kincade, 37, appeared yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge K. Nicole Mitchell and was released on an unsecured bond. Kincade was indicted on January 21 and charged with 31 counts of preparing income tax returns with false statements in them, six counts of theft of government money, and six counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces up to three years in federal prison for each of the 31 counts, up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the six counts of theft of government money, and up to two years in federal prison for each of the six counts of aggravated identity theft.

According to federal prosecutors, Kincade prepared tax returns at a tax preparation business, EZ Tax, in Palestine. He is alleged to have devised a scheme to prepare false tax returns, steal clients’ refunds, and use the clients’ and other individuals’ identities to accomplish the theft. The indictment alleges that the goal of Kincade’s false statements and representations in the tax returns that he submitted was to increase the amount of tax refunds to which the taxpayer would be entitled. All of these false statements and representations were about material matters, including such matters as filing status, dependents, wages, farm losses, business losses, withholding, education credits, distribution codes on retirement distributions, and itemized deductions.

The indictment also alleges that Kincade was able to intercept the government tax refunds for his own benefit by printing the refund checks, not giving them to his clients, and then cashing them with the assistance of two individuals who were not associated with EZ Tax. This process involved Kincade’s delivering refund checks along with his clients’ identification information to an acquaintance who was also a client. Kincade’s acquaintance would then deliver the checks to a third person, who owned a check cashing business located in Tyler. This third person would cash the checks and give the cash to Kincade’s acquaintance, and the acquaintance would deliver the cash to Kincade, who would keep the money.