Every ethics course I have attended as an accountant always includes an informal comment along the lines of, “you will end up in a situation where you need to make a choice to do the right thing.” Not everybody chooses to actually do the right thing.
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If I were advising the defense on this I might suggest that the accountant had gone rogue and done this to “help” the client.
The taxpayer signs the return under penalty of perjury; the preparer signs based on what he/she knows/knew (or should have known).
Anyway, if the accountant is saying, in effect, “I am a liar, and I lied to the Federal Gov’t. But now that I have immunity from my lies, you can trust me that I am telling the truth.” Well, doesn’t that seem like a very easy thing for the defense to attack?
Ultimately, the taxpayer is responsible for the content and outcome of the tax return. The accountant will be in trouble for filing a bad return, but the taxpayer bears the burden, eventually. What happens to the accountant would come through different channels from this case, unless the prosecutor brings charges of collusion on the part of the accountant.
??If I were advising the defense on this I might suggest that the accountant had gone rogue and done this to “help” the client.
The taxpayer signs the return under penalty of perjury; the preparer signs based on what he/she knows/knew (or should have known).
Trust me: they WILL cover it. An attorney doing his or her first trial would catch this. They will also ask her about other tax filings she’s forged. If she hasn’t forged any, why would she fear repurcussions? If she has, of course, it will weigh heavily in the mind of the jurors.