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A Ridgewood tax preparer has been charged with preparing false tax returns in an attempt to defraud the state out of nearly $4 million, according to the Office of the Queens District Attorney.

The tax preparer has been identified by the DA as Tommasina Paolino, 44, of 69th Place in Glendale.

Paolino, who operates Titan Enterprises located at 68-51A Fresh Pond Rd. in Ridgewood, was arraigned March 20 on charges of first-degree grand larceny, first-degree identity theft, first-degree falsifying business records and other related charges. The alleged scheme was discovered by the
State Tax Department when processing the returns.

Paolino, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, was held on $500,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court April 3. Her lawyer, Richard Gutierrez, did not immediately return calls for comment.

“Stealing from the public fisc is the same as stealing from the pockets of every New Yorker,” DA Richard Brown said. “In this case, by purposefully defrauding New York government of such a significant sum of revenue, money that could have been used for any number of valuable public purposes, the defendant is alleged to have made every New Yorker a victim.”

New York State Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Robert Menga said, “The Department is taking aim at fraudulent tax prepares who use their knowledge of tax administration and the tax law to game the system. This preparer’s scheme, which involved filing completely fictitious returns seeking high dollar refunds and credits, unraveled after discovery by astute department employees.”

Paolino attempted to collect nearly $4 million in state tax refunds between May 16, 2005 and April 15, 2007, according to the charges. She received about $1.8 million before being caught by the State Tax Department.

Paolino is accused of using the social security numbers and credit card information of dozens of individuals to fraudulently prepare 36 tax returns for 2003 to 2006 in which she falsely claimed investment tax credits ranging from $13,863 to $160,811. The returns reportedly identified Paolino as a “third party designee” – the person other than the taxpayer to be contacted to answer questions about the returns.

On Wednesday, March 19, court-authorized search warrants were executed by the NYPD, the State Tax Department and the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau at Paolino’s business and home. Among the items allegedly recovered were several computers, $17,000 in cash, business records and other documents.