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KAYSVILLE — A woman who was doing taxes for family members for free has been charged with pocketing some of their refunds.
Trina Marie Semon, 36, of Kaysville, was charged Wednesday in 2nd District Court with communications fraud and five counts of theft by deception, third-degree felonies, and theft by deception, a class A misdemeanor.
According to the Davis County Attorney's Office, Semon offered to fill out tax returns for some family members for the past few years at no cost.
"In fact, they have offered to compensate her for her services, but she has turned them down, explaining that she helps our family for free," charging documents state. "Well, as it was later discovered, her accounting services were not pro bono."
After Semon would fill out tax returns and submit them, "Trina would have the IRS deposit a portion of the amount of the victims' tax refunds into her own personal America First Credit Union or Horizon Credit Union account while depositing the other amount in their accounts. She did this without the victims’ knowledge or permission, depriving them of much of their tax refunds," the charges state.
The scheme came to light this year when a relative who had refunds sent to their accounts by Semon in 2017 and 2018 received a full refund directly from the IRS and discovered it was a substantially higher than in years past, according to the charges.
The court documents reflect two victims who lost more than $18,000 in tax returns that Semon pocketed dating back to 2015, the charges state. Law enforcers "are still investigating other possible victims."
