May 19, 2013
A man is accused of tax fraud from behind bars.
Michael Joseph was an inmate at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads, Florida when the Department of Justice says, he filed 84 fraudulent tax returns.
In total, $179,349 would've been claimed from those forms.
The 46 count indictment says he used the names and social security numbers of inmates to file the returns.
He listed his mother's address on those forms.
The indictment says he wasn't the only one involved in the crime.
In 2009 the IRS said Florida had the most cases in the country for inmates filing false returns from prison.
Senator Bill Nelson has been one of the U.S. Congress members who has been fighting this issue.
Last year, the Florida Department of Corrections and the IRS came to an agreement about sharing inmate information to combat the problem.
That expired at the end of 2011.
Nelson has introduced legislation that would permanently give the IRS authority to share information with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state prison authorities about inmate tax fraud.
